The biochemistry of cell communication (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, August 31, 2016, 13:09 (3005 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: If I wear my theist hat, I can certainly see that a divinely designed mechanism producing all kinds of weird, platypussy wonders might serve the purpose of satisfying curiosity, providing relief from eternal boredom, having fun, learning new things etc. I can also see in all organisms, including the platypus, the purpose of survival. But what I cannot see is how the platypus - as unique in its way as homo sapiens, being the sole survivor of its wider family - can be part of your God's great plan to produce you and me. And you can multiply that example by all the other millions of extant and extinct natural wonders and evolutionary innovations which you insist also required God's personal intervention. - DAVID: You wear two hats, so you must be two-headed. I still invoke the balance of nature to explain it, plus a drive to extreme inventiveness to see what evolves.
 - As any hat-maker will tell you, it is possible and indeed highly desirable that you should own more than one hat, but you can only wear one at a time.
 
We agreed long ago that the balance of nature means nothing more than life going on. It does not explain why your God would specially preprogramme or dabble the platypus or the weaverbird's nest. The drive to extreme inventiveness "to see what evolves" is precisely what I have outlined above. That is very different from the “guided” drive to extreme inventiveness to produce what has already been planned. It's good to see you slowly moving towards my hypothesis!