Bacterial electrical communication (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, September 13, 2017, 13:19 (2627 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Never desperate. No threat to God. My knowledge of biochemistry and biology tell me there are designed epigenetic responses for adaptation.

dhw: I don’t know how your knowledge of biochemistry and biology can tell you that 3.8 billion years ago a God preprogrammed (or later dabbled) every innovation, lifestyle, and natural wonder, including the activities of plants, bacteria and ants, but he did NOT give them intelligence, even though you point out that there is no way you can tell the difference between intelligent behaviour and programmed behaviour.

DAVID: Looking into cells, one can see that all the processes act automatically as the molecules scurry about and interact. This activity is wildly complex, beyond any possibility of chance formation. It is easy to conceive of a planning mind as the designer of life. I know you can't see it, but lots of us can.

You have said yourself that it is impossible to distinguish between intelligent behaviour and automatic behaviour. Shapiro and others have looked into cells and concluded that their behaviour is intelligent, but you insist that it is automatic. I don’t know why you contrast this with chance formation. The argument is not about how cells acquired their intelligence (it may well be that a god gave it to them) but WHETHER they are intelligent.