Different in degree or kind (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, December 24, 2013, 13:27 (3774 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: My clear definition of your answer is that cells are preprogrammed automatons, and so God does all the inventing. How, then, according to you can cells have an inventive intelligence? What is "implanted in genetic code"? If you mean independent cellular intelligence, I have always accepted the possibility that your God may have created it. My focus is on how evolution works. But I suspect you are again referring to an implanted programme (i.e. for all the innovations from single cell to humans), in which case the inventive intelligence is God's, not that of the cells.-DAVID: It is hard for me to understand your confusion. The genome works on implanted information, period. That information allows the genome to try out variations in response to various stimuli and challenges from nature. Natural selection helps pick out the winners. Partly the information pushes complexity. That is why we see convergence everywhere, and a bush of life.
 -You have agreed that cells have an "inventive intelligence", and are able to "try out variations", and yet you insist that they are "automatons". I consider these terms to be contradictory, and that is where the confusion arises. If "implanted information" means the ability to make their own decisions and to innovate, then it's the same as saying God gave cells an intelligence of their own. If you mean God implanted the programme for the different adaptations and innovations, i.e. that cells are merely obeying God's instructions, we are back where you started. -dhw: Once more, why would God design six different types of eyes if he only needed one to fulfil his purpose of producing humans? Are you now saying that you and Conway Morris do not after all believe in your divine preprogramming of the first cells with all innovations leading to humans?-DAVID: I have described above the technique I believe God used in setting up evolution as He did. You refuse to recognize that the key is implantd information which runs the program. It allows for a bush to develop, which includes a half dozen eye types.-Implanted information which gives cells the intelligence to do their own inventing, or implanted information which tells cells what to produce? The rest of your post circles round the same question.