Natures wonders: making spider silk (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, August 07, 2014, 22:25 (3759 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID (under "Cell Memories"): At a guess, pre-programming seems to fit more with the concept of God as a first mover.-dhw: So let me get this straight. Your best guess is that God built into the very first living cells an intricately planned mechanism which billions of years later, having passed through zillions of generations of different organisms, would enable spiders to spin their silk. But you also think it possible that God took hold of some non-silk-spinning organisms and juggled with their genome so that they could spin silk. Can you think of any other way in which this "intricate planning" could have taken place? -DAVID: Actually no. I just can't imagine a group of "intelligent" cells conjuring up the necesary pH changes to spin silk from protein molecules on the spot, which is what spiders do. It, obviously to me, takes some very careful planning in putting the mechanism in action-Fair enough, but it seems your criterion for belief is what you can imagine. So can you in all honesty imagine your “pure energy” God preprogramming the very first cells with plans for eyes, kidneys, livers, lungs, spider silk, ant rafts and all the rest of Nature's Wonders - every plan to be passed down through the billions of years and zillions of organisms, and to be carried out automatically when the time was right? Alternatively, can you imagine your God fiddling around with zillions of individual organisms to endow them with these different mechanisms?