Cell Memories (Identity)

by David Turell , Monday, August 11, 2014, 00:56 (3541 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: Confusion reigns. Your assumption is that God stepped in to organize the Cambrian (= he dabbled), but you prefer the theory that he preprogrammed all the new organs and species in the first living cells.-I'm not confused. I admitted I don't know. I prefer to favor preplanning, but dabbling is a possibility I cannot rule out.-
> dhw: We have both long since rejected Darwin's random mutations as the mechanism, and agreed that natural selection only selects from what already exists. The subject of this discussion is my hypothesis of the intelligent cell, and your hypotheses of God preprogramming everything from the very start (which you might call theistic evolution) or God dabbling ..... If you are not a Creationist, you are stuck with God preprogramming every single innovation right from the beginning. Is that really what you believe? -That is what I prefer to believe, but I have no proof of either method, and perhaps both approaches were used.
> 
> I have already accepted that area of your scepticism in the sentence you have quoted. But you claimed my hypothesis of the intelligent cell didn't fit the history, and I pointed out that it offered exactly the same explanation of the history.....You may not believe cells are capable of it, but if they were, that would give us the same outcome as your preprogramming or your dabbling hypotheses.-That is exactly where we disagree. If the cells were brilliant enough the same result is probable. However, present evidence does not take slightly sentient cells with simple reactions to the level required to plan the complexity and coordination of advanced organisms. Your theory requires extreme faith in those cells, and you eschew faith.