Immunity: detecting dangerous bacteria (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, November 19, 2017, 15:02 (2343 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: You wrote that the “immune system cells learn about bacteria by experience, changing its DNA to fit its discoveries”. If cells learn by experience and change their structure, they cannot be automatons, but until now that is what you have insisted they are. Your acknowledgement that cells learn from experience and act according to what they learn makes for a red-letter day in the history of the AgnosticWeb!

The immune system is a very specialized protection arrangement. New organisms cannot know in advance what enemy will attack, therefore they are designed to react in the way they do and teach themselves how to identify foreign foes. it is all automatic. I've described this before as a testimony to God's design ability.

dhw: As for alternatives to your God, you know perfectly well that one is chance and one is the panpsychist hypothesis I have described over and over again (bottom up evolution), and you know that I find these hypotheses as difficult to believe in as the universal sourceless conscious mind you call God. And that is why I am an agnostic. (See also my response to the article on panpsychism)

Yes I understand your hang ups.