bacterial (cellular) intelligence shown to be DNA driven (Animals)

by dhw, Thursday, December 14, 2017, 10:52 (2315 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: The article is a red herring. Its concern is to dismiss Darwinian randomness in favour of design - a totally different point to the one we are discussing. It was you who said the immune cells learn by experience and change their DNA accordingly, and I thought you had agreed that they were NOT preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago with every possible solution to every problem. Your next comment appears to confirm this. (dhw's bold)

DAVID: Only the immune system is known to have this capacity, which is absolutely necessary for life to survive.

dhw: Which capacity? According to you, all cell communities have been preprogrammed, so if you think the immune system is unique, then its "capacity" must be the ability to take its own decisions - an integral element of autonomous intelligence. Of course this is necessary for life to survive. The smooth functioning of many cell communities is necessary for life to survive! But if one cell community is KNOWN to have autonomous intelligence, then others may have it too (you agreed to a 50/50 chance), and so perhaps you will pay more heed now to all the implications of the hypothesis. It does not preclude design or the existence of a designer. It only precludes a scenario in which 3.8 billion years ago your God preprogrammed every innovation, lifestyle, natural wonder and cellular adaptation (other than that of the immune cells!) in the history of life, or alternatively dabbled each one personally.

DAVID: The immune cells are the only cells in life with their special ability to adapt their functions to respond to invaders with specialized secretions to kill. This is clearly shown in the research.

And according to you they learn by experience and are able to adapt their DNA according to whatever situation they are confronted with. Having referred me to an article that dismissed Darwinian randomness, you next refer me to an article that explains why the immune cells of older patients are less able to make these changes to themselves. And then you repeat that the cells are programmed. Please simply tell me whether you think the immune cells were preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago with solutions to every single problem thrown at them by invaders for the rest of time, or whether they were given the mechanism with which to learn by experience and make their own decisions about how to kill invaders.