Genome complexity: what genes do and don't do (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, February 17, 2019, 20:28 (1895 days ago) @ dhw

Articl: Scientists have known for quite some time, and have been warning the public, that the overuse of antibiotics only stimulates bacteria to do what they have done for the past 3 billion years: Mutate and survive.

dhw: Yes indeed, the purpose or driving force of all these mutations is survival – whether your God designed the mechanisms or not. (my bold)
[…]
When it comes to protecting themselves, bacteria are really good at what they do. Bacteria has been around for billions of years and they have been fine-tuning their defenses against other microbes that could harm or destroy them.[/b] (dhw’s bold) Many of the antibiotics we have created began as microorganisms, which means that we are playing in the stadium owned by bacteria. (David's bold)

dhw: No mention of automaticity, or of a 3.8-billion-year old library of information and instructions. Bacteria fine-tune their defences, and even the one example (a strain of E.coli) that is already resistant to new bacteria is believed to have originated on a farm in China.

DAVID: The bolded above that I created is a typo. " Many of the antibiotics we have created began as [creations by the] microorganisms, which means that we are playing in the stadium owned by bacteria" should read as I corrected it.

dhw; I have reproduced the article as written. In any case, I don’t see that your addition changes the argument for bacterial intelligence.

DAVID: You may be surprised but this article is exactly like all the ones I've read about bacterial resistance. The bacteria are here for 3.5+ billion years as the basis of future advances in evolution, and now actively play a modifying role in the human biome. A recent study suggest schizophrenia have a relationship to bacteria in our guts!

dhw: I am not in the least surprised. I have reproduced the article to support my contention and that of the earlier article that bacteria have continually created their own instructions on the hoof,"de novo", as opposed to your contention that 3.8 billion years ago your God provided them with a library of information and instructions to deal with every new situation for the rest of time. Why have you changed the subject?

DAVID: I've not changed any of my views from having reviewed it. Note again, E. coli are still E.coli. They have solved as immediate solution for their immediate survival. Survival does not cause speciation. Survival does not drive evolution. Evolution requires design.

dhw: Article after article points out that bacteria solve their own problems, but you have not changed your views and you prefer to ignore all the evidence which you kindly present to us. Instead you revert to the issue of survival which we are discussing on the “Big brain evolution” thread. Once again, please stop pretending that an “immediate driving force” (your own description of survival) is not a driving force and that the hypothesis of (possibly God-given) cellular intelligence excludes design.

First of all I did not 'switch to survival' as you claim. Look at the first comment of yours in this iteration of our discussion I've edited. You returned to the subject: 'switch to survival' as you put it by noting the quote in the article above your quote. You are quoting Darwinian scientists who wrote the article. I carefully watch the obvious background thinking of those who write whatever. It always has great influence on interpretation of results. I fully agree with you: bacteria can solve immediate problems. You and I are in complete disagreement as to how that happens. Our divisions of thought will not change. I've always known , as stated in my first book, only the realization of the magnitude of extreme complexity of living beings through scientific research, will it then drive most of us to accept God, the designer. Thus I continue to present the science delving into the complexities of living biology.