Genome complexity: handling replication (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, January 19, 2017, 12:53 (2865 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: As I have explained many times before, not being able to believe in something is not the same as disbelieving it. I do not believe in chance, and I do not believe in a nebulous, all-powerful, universe-embracing, sourceless intelligence. I accept that one or other of these incredible hypotheses must be nearer the truth than the other, but that does not enable me to choose between them.

DAVID: "Nearer to the truth' is an interesting phrase. There must be a 'truth'. Is it other than your current list of possibilities? Can you suggest what that 'truth' might be?

Chance is one possible ‘truth’, and a single mind (your God) is another, but if your single mind can be sourceless, so can multiple minds, and that is the panpsychist hypothesis that we have frequently discussed. If matter has a mental aspect, that mental dimension might evolve from the bottom upwards. No, I don’t believe it, but it is no more incredible than pure, mindless chance or your one sourceless mind that knows everything beforehand (top downwards). And for the record, I would regard that version of the panpsychist theory as closer to the chance theory than to the God theory.