Epigenetics: through phenotype changes? (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, January 18, 2015, 13:12 (3598 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: I'm trying to pin you down on the issue of how you think evolution works, and I'm using the weaverbird's nest as a test case. For the sake of argument, I continue to wear my theist hat, and offer these theistic choices: 1) God preprogrammed the first cells to pass on the design of the weaverbird's nest; 2) God dabbled to design the nest; 3) God provided the first cells with an inheritable, autonomous, intelligent, inventive mechanism which enabled the weaverbird to design its nest for itself. If you think any of these three hypotheses could be combined, please tell me how. If you can't, it's either 1, 2 or 3, so please tell me which you think is most likely.-DAVID: We are full circle back to my dilemma. I don't know. By a process of elimination, recognizing that chance mutations won't work, I'm left with the conclusion that God guided evolution, and you want me to tell you how, and I can't. Your three alternatives are correct considerations. The only other possibility is the concept (Sheldrake) of species consciousness combined with an IM (God-given) so that the whole flock of weaverbirds worked it out over a period of time as they evolved as a species of birds.-Whether they worked it out slowly, quickly, individually or flockily is not the point. The question is whether they did it themselves, or God did it for them. The extent to which information gets passed on from organism to organism or through some kind of species consciousness is also irrelevant to what you call your dilemma. You have agreed that either God did it all (preprogramming or dabbling), or he gave the weaverbirds (and millions of other organisms) the wherewithal to work it out for themselves. I know you don't know. You don't know whether God exists either, but you have very strong convictions. And you even have a strong belief that you know what God wanted to do when he started life. So I'm surprised you can't tell me which you find most likely out of these three possible roles for God in the design of the weaverbird's nest. (More pecking to be found on the "Animal Language" thread!)
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