Balance of nature illustrated (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, February 08, 2015, 20:25 (3575 days ago) @ dhw

dhw:Once again, a “balanced food supply” in whose interests?
> DAVID: The survivors.
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> dhw: Put these statements together, and what have you got? God planned a balanced food supply in the interests of the survivors, but he didn't plan what was to survive.-How do you know He didn't plan 'what was to survive?-> Daavid The appearance of consciousness certainly bothers Nagel. He wrote a whole book about his discomfort at the lack of recognition by science that nothing explains it.[/i]
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> It bothers all of us. If nothing explains consciousness, it doesn't really help much to say that consciousness was created by a consciousness which can't be explained!-The explanation is that it always existed. Back to the issue that there has to be a first cause. 
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> dhw: Irrelevant. Researchers have claimed that bacteria are intelligent. You claim that your premises are based on observation. You observe something that looks designed and conclude that therefore it is designed. You observe something else that looks intelligent (which you have admitted), and you conclude that it isn't intelligent. You have no way of actually knowing, but you impose your premises on what you observe.-So do you. I know how single cells work. They are automated factories and are so described by biochemists. They have automated responses to stimuli, as do single celled organisms. -> DAVID: Because, as you know, I accept only either chance or design. One has to be the default.
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> dhw: Just as design by a human is design, design by a bird is design. Chance is not a factor here. We are talking about the inventive mechanism and not its source.-I'm not arguing that point as you present it. I agree that animals appear to do some design on their own, but the basis of our argument is the issue of instinct as the problem. We do not know how it arises. Either the bird nest is a matter of repetitive attempts over many generations with epigenetic alterations or they were helped with design by pre-existing genetic instructions. I have my choice.