Your essay today was interesting and I appreciated your attempt to us "biological machines" to fathom what makes humans so special.
While reading your essay, the first thing that entered my mind was a rather simple question: At what point can the cells (biological machines) of the human body be removed until it is no longer "intelligent" as per your definition?
Obviously, loosing a few thousand skin cells every day does not destroy our intelligence, but eventually a point will be reached when thought is no longer a possibility. Cells in the body die and are usually replaced. On the average, every single cell of the human body is replaced in about seven years.
Now back to the quote I started off with.
Humans are unique in our ability to pass along information between generations verbally or by using the written word. Knowledge learned thousands of years ago can and has been passed along to each generation. That knowledge, even if the person is not aware of it, does influence every single action of a person's life at one level or another.
So, for the sake of argument, how well does your theory work if our abiliy to pass along information was eliminated?
To be more specific, if humans were unable to pass along the information contained in the Bible, would we still have the "freedom to choose or reject him as our Father and Creator without that ability?
If so, could you explain?
Fascinating! I was thinking about this very concept as I was typing. It hit me at that time that the evolution that is happening to us right now (which I actually call de-evolution) is slowly rusting us away to nothing, as with the '56 Nash in the article. Now, without the ability to pass information on from generation to generation, we would literally get more and more stupid. But, because man can collectively learn from generation to generation, unlike all the rest of creation, we actually have the power to technologically stop and even reverse the process.
Ok, that's a little off your point, but what I think is this: If you remove the engine from the car, the transmission is worthless. That is, the bible was created for man by God to be used according to mans abilities as granted by God.
I guess what I am trying to say here goes along the idea that the early Church didn't have a "Bible" as we know it, and there are plenty of translations today that, in insignificant ways, at least, are not always identical - and many people will simply never see a bible in their lifetime. So the Bible is obviously not required for salvation. I see the Bible as something that augments what I have personally experienced. It's like having a book of wisdom that was written by youre father that you read quite often, but you also talk to him on the phone a lot. Ultimately, the bible is imperfect language (which is, by definition, sybolism), created by man. It is a good starting point to bring someone to the knowledge that there just might be something to all this stuff. And it can remind you of who He is, or inspire you, but the relationship must ultimately get past the intellect (the brain) and sink into the spirit.
More directly, If man was incapable of passing it down, I don't think God would have done it that way.