Biological complexity: how the cell proteasome works (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, May 05, 2017, 01:44 (2760 days ago) @ dhw

Daavid: This means my point above must be taken seriously. The first cells that maintained life after it started were complete units with completely integrated organelles that were protected against mistakes and had controls managed by feedback loops. They were run by a DNA code which rivals any code invented by humans. It is more than reasonable to conclude that only design by a planning mind is the source of the beginning of life.[/i]

dhw: All we can say is that the first living cells were produced by an unknown force. We have no idea what that force is or was, how it originated, whether it is singular or plural, absent or present, working from top to bottom or bottom to top...

What we can say is design is required. the complexity demands that.

dhw: But in the light of some of your current posts (for which once more many thanks), I will point out the evidence for bottom-up evolution, the point being that rudimentary intelligence can create ever more sophisticated forms of intelligence by combining with other intelligences. This is summed up by the Wikipedia article I referred to earlier:

“Microbial intelligence (popularly known as bacterial intelligence) is the intelligence shown by microorganisms. The concept encompasses complex adaptive behaviour shown by single cells, and altruistic or cooperative behavior in populations of like or unlike cells mediated by chemical signalling that induces physiological or behavioral changes in cells and influences colony structures.”
(Please note that chemical signalling is their form of communication, and does not denote automaticity.)

I will simply repeat that my interpretation and that of the ID scientists is that the cells are totally automatic and contain intelligently implanted information.

dhw: The pattern in all these quotes is clear: individual units combine into communities that work out processes far beyond the scope of each individual in isolation. This applies from bacteria right through to ourselves: we are a collection of cell communities (including that of the brain), and all these cell communities have an intelligence of their own. This is not to minimize the problem of the very first cells, but I am simply trying to show that intelligent design does not necessarily mean a single mind that knows and plans everything (top down); intelligent design can be the product of intelligent communities that learn from experience and (bottom up) create ever more complex designs as they build on the work of their predecessors.

Intelligence had to appear in the first cells. Intelligence is immaterial and requires thoughtful planning to be useful in having evolution progress from simple single celled to complex multicellular, granting that the initial cells are highly complex to begin with. I simply accept that God supplied the intelligence from the beginning.