Explaining natural wonders: bacterial intelligence (Animals)

by David Turell , Tuesday, June 13, 2017, 17:54 (2719 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: Shapiro, Margulis, McClintock, Buehler also know/knew how cells work in biology, and they believe in cellular intelligence. And I can’t help wondering how many of your fellow scientists would agree with you that only God could possibly have designed the weaverbird’s nest, or taught the monarch butterfly how to navigate, or instructed the wasp to lay its eggs on the spider’s back.

And all my ID scientists agree with me.

DAVID: If it is God's method it does not have to make sense. The whales present evidence that the simplest path is not always used, for reasons not clear to me, or you.

dhw: And so we are back to your acknowledgement that your version of God’s method does not make sense to you, and yet you are not prepared to consider any theistic alternative that does make sense. Dr David, you are suffering from a severe form of dogmatism.

Just as you dogmatically deny God exists, although as a condensation you admit He might actually exist. Your fence is shaky!

DAVID: The evidence, again, is humans with their brains and consciousness are the most complex production of evolution, therefore a pinnacle, and a desired result. He created the universe to produce humans, without question.

dhw: They can be a desired result without being the one and only reason for God creating the universe. The whales can also be a desired result. The vast variety of life forms can be a desired result. And if humans are the pinnacle, that could be the result of your God having had a new idea after a few thousand million years, or experimenting because he didn’t know how to produce a consciousness like his own, or devising an autonomous inventive mechanism which gave rise to all the different species, lifestyles etc. and eventually (and perhaps inevitably) led to humans via a whole series of improvements, as exemplified by the evolution of hominins to homo sapiens. All of these theistic alternatives make perfect sense and fit in with the history of life as we know it. None of them demand faith in a dogma which even you admit does not make sense.

Just the opposite. It is apparent that God uses evolutionary processes at all levels: universe, Earth, life. If we accept it as his preferred approach, it all makes sense. He may not be limited as you try to imply. It is obvious you dogmatically refuse to accept the idea that God knows exactly what He is doing.