Logic and evolution (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, July 24, 2016, 18:15 (3042 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You seem to think that Shapiro only ever said one thing about cells. Here for the umpteenth time is something else he says about cells: “Living cells and organisms are cognitive (sentient) entities that act and interact purposefully to ensure survival, growth and proliferation. They possess corresponding sensory, communication, information-processing, and decision-making capabilities.” (p. 143, Evolution: A View from the 21st Century). -DAVID: Remember I have the right to reach my own interpretations of his statements. He follows that sentence with : "cells are built to evolve; they have the ability to alter their hereditary characteristics through well-described natural genetic engineering and epigenetic processes as well as by cell mergers." This is my 'built-in drive to complexity. Only a planning mind could have created what he is describing. -Being sentient and cognitive, they clearly have the ability to alter their characteristics autonomously, using the processes he describes. Yes, “a built-in drive to complexity” if that's what you want to call it, but a drive that is implemented by their intelligence. You are perfectly entitled to argue that only a planning mind could have created that intelligence - but: -dhw: Please don't tell me that by cognitive, sentient, purposeful, decision-making etc., he actually means automatically obeying God's instructions. 
DAVID: Just following God's implanted instructions.-That is your belief, and you are entitled to disagree with Shapiro, but please don't tell me Shapiro agrees with you.-DAVID: I would note that cells can only react with their available molecular reactions that are onboard, which in your view may well be God given, and I agree.

dhw: My view is that their autonomous intelligence may well be God-given (50/50), and I would not define intelligence as “their available molecular reactions”.-DAVID: But that is the only evidence we have from protein analysis of cells. Are you invoking panpsychism again?-Protein analysis of cells will not explain how cell communities reach their decisions. Panpsychism is a very broad term, but I certainly do invoke the idea that all living organisms have some form of consciousness (not to be confused with human levels of self-awareness).