An inventive mechanism; Read this essay (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, October 05, 2014, 15:30 (3700 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by David Turell, Sunday, October 05, 2014, 15:39

It is long, but clearly thought out. The supplemental box at the end is also long but an exact description of the inventive mechanism that is beginning to appear in our research of the genetic mechanisms of organisms. Simply, non-life does not make life, life brings life, life manages most genetic changes, fitness cannot be defined or described, and purpose is everywhere.-http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/evolution-and-the-illusion-of-randomness-I have mentioned Talbott's other essays in the past. I love the way he logically disses Dawkins and Dennett.-"In fact, we are no longer free to imagine that evolution waits around for “accidents” to knock genes askew so as to provide new material for natural selection to work on. The genome of every organism is actively and insistently remodeled as an expression of its context. Genetic sequences get rewritten, reshuffled, duplicated, turned backward, “invented” from scratch, and otherwise revised in a way that prominently advertises the organism's accomplished skill in matters of genomic change. The illustrations of this skill are so extensive in the contemporary literature that there is no way to review it adequately here. (For some examples, see the supplement “Natural Genome Engineering” [below], which contains the bulk of the evidence for my contentions here.)"-But note, he never uses 'design', nor does he ever try to explain how this deeper quality of life controlling life came to be. For him it just IS.:-"Such, then, is the living reality that Dawkins refers to as the “appearance of design” or the “illusion of design and planning.”[6]- "It is also what Dennett has in mind when he writes, “All the Design in the universe can be explained as the product of a process that is ultimately bereft of intelligence, in other words an algorithmic process that weds randomness and selection to produce ... all the intelligence that exists.”[7]-" (Dawkins and Dennett sometimes seem fixated upon design, presumably as a result of their severely constraining preoccupation with religion and with the “creationism” or “intelligent design” promulgated by some religious folks. Although the word has its legitimate uses, you will not find me speaking of design, simply because — as I've made abundantly clear in previous articles — organisms cannot be understood as having been designed, machine-like, whether by an engineer-God or a Blind Watchmaker elevated to god-like status. If organisms participate in a higher life, it is a participation that works from within — at a deep level the ancients recognized as that of the logos informing all things. It is a sharing of the springs of life and being, not a mere receptivity to some sort of external mechanical tinkering modeled anthropocentrically on human engineering.)"