Explaining natural wonders: bacterial intelligence (Animals)

by David Turell , Monday, May 22, 2017, 20:08 (2740 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Bacteria have known how to combat them from the beginning or they wouldn't be here. Since I think God invented life, He gave them these pathways.

The means of combating them must be present as a potential, but that applies to every measure and countermeasure you can think of. However, since billions of bacteria are killed by antibiotics before some of them come up with their different countermeasures, billions of them didn’t know how to combat them. And that is why we can hypothesize that some bacteria might be better at finding solutions than others.

You are skipping over our previous discussions. Bacteria are variable. Some easily switch on the right mechanism, most don't and die. The survivors repopulate.

DAVID: We have not found epigenetic steps to speciation so far. That is possible, but the gaps in the fossil record imply it does not exist.

dhw: No, we haven’t found them. That is why is it is a HYPOTHESIS. If we could find fossils for every single stage of speciation from bacteria to humans (not asking much, are we?) we wouldn’t need to hypothesize.

You are back to Darwin hoping the missing tiny steps would be found. Gould famously said they didn't exist and invented punctuated equilibrium to explain it, but it doesn't.

dhw there are no “ifs” that can prove God doesn’t exist, so at least that’s one argument you can’t lose!

The real argument is that design is required to cover the gaps.

DAVID: Once again you have talked around the need for future conceptualization and planning to explain the gaps in the fossil record. Isn't that a requirement for species gap advancement? Let's address that issue, before attacking my conclusion.

dhw: I have already addressed that issue, but you take no notice. Once again: in my hypothesis there is no future conceptualization and planning. Evolution progresses through the intelligent RESPONSES of organisms to the opportunities (and dangers) presented by changes in the environment. The gaps in the fossil record can be explained by saltations, and a major environmental change (e.g.maybe Cambrian oxygen) may trigger major innovations.

The same old suggestions. Yes, more oxygen allowed for more energy utilization and the appearance of more complex body forms, but that does not explain what drove the complexity to appear. Simple forms taking advantage of it is not an answer. It assumes they have an intelligence which has not be demonstrated. Yes, you hypothesize, but I prefer to follow what is known and demonstrated. Saltations in biology require major complex mutational changes and prior planning. If you look back in today's comments, you keep hoping for tiny steps. So did Darwin.