Natures wonders: zombified animals (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, January 13, 2017, 12:47 (2869 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: There are no committee meetings of the three, and I have suggested that the parasite works out its own lifestyle. There is no doubt that evolution has created increasingly complex forms and lifestyles, and I agree that humans are the most complex in terms of their mental capacity. The dispute is over how the process works. I have asked if your explanation of this example is that God preprogrammed the first cells to pass on the zombification technique? If not, do you think your God intervened and gave the parasite personal instructions? If it is neither of these, please offer an alternative to my own explanation, that the parasite used its own possibly God-given intelligence to work the method out for itself.

DAVID: If the parasite works out its own lifestyle, it learned to control the pill bugs brain instantaneously; not likely. And then the startling had to have a taste for that particular bug. I don't know why this three-part system exists, but if one accepts the po0ssibility that somehow the evolutionary process creates complexity, this is complexity. And God uses evolution so it is His complexity that happens.

Nobody would deny that if God exists, he is responsible for the evolutionary process. Nobody would deny that the evolutionary process has produced complexity. Nobody would deny that the zombification process is complex. So do you believe that your God personally preprogrammed or dabbled the parasite, or that he gave the parasite the intelligence to work out the zombification process (or possibly to exploit a chance discovery and pass it on to others)? If it is none of these, what is your alternative?