Instinctual Behavior Vs Intelligent Decisions

I think we're all hoping some other moderator will tackle this one because it was a little difficult to tell where you were going. My own reaction was that the Dawkins paragraph near the beginning gives the sense that the thread would be about evolution versus design, so I'd remove that paragraph since it's purpose is to clarify but it doesn't seem to do that.I think you may really be asking how we tell the difference between instinctual and conscious behavior. Whether instinctual behaviors are evolved did not seem part of the topic. If so then I think the proposal needs a rewrite.

Thread copied here from the Instinctual Behavior Vs Intelligent Decisions thread in the Proposed New Topics forum.