An inventive mechanism: role of horizontal gene transfer (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, December 03, 2014, 22:17 (3425 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: The great question is the degree of its autonomy. I do not think it IS lots; I think it MAY BE lots. If you put your cowboy six-shooter to my head, I will certainly opt for lots rather than your all-inclusive preprogramming of all innovations and complex lifestyles 3.7 billion years ago, but that is not the point. The limits for invention are unknown, so how can you as a scientist champion one theistic hypothesis and reject the other (remember, I have allowed for your God designing the IM), believing that your dilemma has been solved when this directly relevant and enormously important area of research remains so incomplete?-My response is simple as previously stated. How do you know the limits of God's ability to program in the beginning? I don't. Early life was complex to begin with. My dabbling problem has to do exactly with my estimate of his powers. Could He do it all from the first or did He have to dabble? With our discussion of an IM as a definite possibility and the Tony's step-wise pattern programming, I am of the opinion that God more than likely did it from the beginning with rare intervention, thereafter. If He was extremely purposeful evolution might have been more direct than it was to arrive at us. Therefore, that any intervention was minimal seems reasonable to me..