Life's biologic complexity: Automatic molecular actions (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, December 21, 2016, 18:01 (2676 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You seem suddenly to have forgotten about your “freewheeling”. That can only mean that God enabled organisms to do their own thing, which you qualified by saying that if they went off course, he directed them back to the production of humans. To avoid all this faffing about with ‘balance of nature’, which simply means life goes on with or without humans, I’ll go back to my most straightforward example, with a straightforward question and a straightforward request: do you now believe that your God allowed the weaverbird to “freewheel” in constructing its nest? If not, please explain how his direction of the weaverbird was instrumental in the production of humans.

DAVID: I've not forgotten freewheeling at all. I do not think the weaverbird ever invented his nest by himself. Much too complex in the knots involved, which I know you have reviewed. Young boy scouts would have trouble. Freewheeling refers to body type, not nest invention. And, of course, back to balance of nature to explain why weaverbirds exist. It took lots of feeding of organisms over lots of time to get to the point when humans could develop.

So please explain why God had to design its complex nest (as opposed to a simple nest) to enable life to go on so that humans could develop? “Freewheeling” is, of course, precisely what I am suggesting - the process whereby organisms autonomously organize their own restructuring (as well as lifestyles and wonders), in contrast to the tight control you have previously ascribed to your God. Please tell us what mechanism you think enabled some species to freewheel off course in spite of God’s tight control, and what changes you think God made to enable them to produce humans.

As for balance of nature, the latest example of dead baby turtles (thank you) illustrates precisely what it means:

“'The authors have shown experimentally that smaller animals also benefit from this energy,” he says. “Sandy beaches are generally energy-poor systems, so the regular seasonal inputs of turtle eggs are important to the microscopic and macroscopic animals that live there.'”

David’s comment: A very clear example of how ecosystems work and provide food for all layers of life. Without these ecosystems food energy supplies would disappear and life would cease.

Yes indeed. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the production of humans, and if humans were to disappear from the planet, there would still be “balance of nature” so long as there is life.

DAVID: Which raises an interesting question with no answer: what did initial life eat if it was rare as it must have been? Did it live on basic elements as some bacteria do?

That sounds to me like a good answer.