Natures wonders: ants farm fungus for food (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, April 14, 2017, 11:31 (2778 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID’s comment: This practice was known but now is shown to be so old it comes from the Chicxulub asteroid. The relationship to climate changes shows the adaptability of ants. Ant planning ( they have brains) with or without God's help? Hard to know for sure.
dhw: The adaptability of bacteria is even more astonishing, since they seem to be able to thrive in virtually every type of environment. But in their case you are quite sure God has not even “helped” – he has preprogrammed or personally dabbled every single decision they take. Brained organisms chauvinism.
DAVID: A brain can program and produce a DNA that can answer any problem a bacteria might face, and that can fool an outside observer into thinking a bacteria is intrinsically intelligent of its own.

Great. There is virtually no environmental problem a bacterium can’t solve. So at last we have brained organisms (which include ants) capable of solving virtually all the problems posed by the environment, and it is only bacteria that need to have been preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago or personally instructed by your God. Thank you for this massive concession to animal intelligence.

Dhw (under “RNA control of genes”): My post pointed out that all the basic needs you had listed are shared by humans. I did not equate basterial lifestyle with ours, as should be clear from the passage you have quoted. The fact that some organisms lead simpler lives than others does not mean your God has had to preprogramme or personally direct every single decision they make. However, taken to its logical conclusion, your argument can be applied to every form of life. Perhaps we are all variations of the Stepford wives and don’t know it.
DAVID: You cannot get around the fact that seemingly intelligent activity can be the result of intelligent controls offered by well-designed DNA.

So it is quite possible that you and I are a form of Stepford wife.