DILEMMAS (Evolution)

by dhw, Friday, October 31, 2014, 19:35 (3674 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: In the hypothesis I have proposed, God provided the information that enables organisms to invent. That does not mean he dictates WHAT they are going to invent (e.g. the giraffe's long neck).
DAVID: Fair enough. -dhw: I am also mulling. What is crucial at this stage of our mulling is that you accept the possibility of an inventive mechanism within the cell/cell community (the “brain” in the genome) which can produce variations that have not been preprogrammed.
DAVID: I have pointd out ways it might have worked: two organisms working out symbiosis, the longer giraffe neck, ant rafts. But nothing as complex as monarch butterfly migration through four generations of metamorphosis. That comes with the patterns.-
I've omitted the rest of your post, because here you have moved us on to the next phase of our discussion, which is where we draw lines. (I am still mulling, and I hope your various statements are mulls and not rigid beliefs.) We have agreed - my theistic version - that God endowed organisms with an inventive mechanism capable of variations he has not preprogrammed (he does not dictate WHAT they are going to invent). So once more the same question: do you believe God preprogrammed the first cells with the four-generation life cycle and migration pattern of the monarch butterfly? Or do you think he dabbled with existing types of butterfly to create this special pattern? Or do you think the butterflies (through their IM) worked it out for themselves? See also my entry under "Nature's Balance". These examples may help us both to clarify what we think may be the range of the inventive mechanism whose existence you now agree is a possibility, and also what you think may the extent of God's control over evolution.