Epigenetics: through phenotype changes? (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, January 15, 2015, 16:39 (3601 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: 2) Perhaps, then, I am not alone in thinking that organisms might possess an inventive mechanism which enables them to innovate. As your own quotes show, the article does not go that far, and still clings to random mutations as the main supplier of innovation. But the above is clearly heading in the direction of my hypothesis. We simply don't know the extent of control that cells/cell communities have over their own development.-DAVID: I presented this article to demonstrate how strongly the Lamarckian theory is raising its ugly head. (Ugly to strict Darwinists). We are still learning how strong this self-improvement mechanism may be. And you have admitted the mechanism may be God given. I think it is and you are still unconvinced, but we are not that far apart.-There are interesting developments here. I offered survival and improvement as purposes for life. You have now subtly changed my term “inventive mechanism” to “self-improvement mechanism”, and “how autonomous” has now become “how strong”. I have no objections if those are the terms you want to use. But we shall remain miles apart if you still insist that your God programmed the very first cells with all the inventions or improvements (from weavers' nests and monarchs' lifestyles to eyes, ears and penises) that have taken place in the history of evolution, just for the sake of producing humans.