Balance of nature illustrated (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, February 06, 2015, 18:54 (3364 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: You make it sound as if your God's purpose was to create a balanced food supply, regardless of what ate it! Balanced in whose interests? How do you define a balanced food supply if different organisms require different foods, and when there aren't enough worms for Dicky Bird, he disappears? -Why not? Species do disappear.
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> DAVID: [...] very complex lifestyles point to a designer God, since it is extremely unlikely that the organisms, by themselves, could have created these complex ways of living. 
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> dhw: Extremely unlikely, but possible - a description that fits all the hypotheses.-"Extremely unlikely" suggests against the odds, don't you think?
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> dhw: Interesting. Bacteria look intelligent, but you start with the premise that they are automatons! Which comes first - the premise or the observation?-From observation-
> dhw: Once more you revert to your attack on chance. ... But instead of a 3.7-billion-year-computer programme or separate dabbles, I offer an alternative: a form of autonomous inventive intelligence (possibly God-given), akin to though different from the autonomous intelligence you believe is possessed by us humans, who also do our own inventing. It may seem unlikely, but as you put it so succinctly, it simply fits.-Kauffman does the same thinking. It avoids an agency such as God.