Please ignore what I wrote previously. I was on the phone with an EA tech for at least 45 minutes (using their call back option) and he patiently helped me navigate my updated Mac operating system 10.8.5, which now hides the "library" file unless you press "option" and while useing the Finder's "go" drop down menu. Thanks Apple! There does not seem to be any obvious way to look through the components of the application file either to see if it alread has the patch #4. Maybe if I clicked my heels together and I said "I wish I was in Windows Explorer" it would work like it should.
Changing the value in the spore config file from "0" to "1" worked. Somewhere in this process I downloaded the 5.1 patch and opened it. Please note that the instructions above are very helpful but misspell the text that you want to find in the config file. It is just one letter difference, an "L" for a "B" was the mistake, I think. When you search the config file look for "=0" and you should be able to find that section of it quickly.
