Immunity: detecting dangerous bacteria (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, November 27, 2017, 13:58 (2554 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Let’s clarify: the brain supplies information to the soul (so the soul uses the information), and then the soul uses the brain to make the body give physical expression to the thought, e.g. by action in the form of movement, speech etc. How does that enable the brain to “functionally THINK”?

DAVID: The brain does not supply information to the soul. […]

I always thought the senses provided the brain with information, which for a dualist was then passed on to the soul. So apparently nothing we see, hear, taste, touch or smell has the slightest influence on the thoughts we think.

dhw: If the soul/consciousness can function without a brain (as in the afterlife you believe in), it means that consciousness does not need a brain, and yet you continue to insist than an organism without a brain can’t be conscious.

DAVID: NDE's show consciousness functions without a brain, but the opposite is not true. A brain doesn't function without consciousness. Consciousness can only be received by brains for function and use.

We shan’t go into the brain functions that take place without our being aware of them. The salient point here is that you keep claiming that consciousness DOES function without a brain and in the next breath you say it cannot exist without a brain, as in your next comment!

DAVID: In my view consciousness can only exist in brains which are the only living matter that can receive it.

dhw: “Consciousness can only exist in brains”, and yet “consciousness can function without a functional brain” (and in the afterlife, without a brain of any kind). But you are not confused. […] how about this for a hypothesis: consciousness is NOT possible without certain chemical processes (materialism). In the animal world these take place within the brain. In other organisms such as bacteria the chemical processes take place within the cell itself, in its equivalent of a brain.

DAVID: Boy, are you confused. Show me the bacterial equivalent of a brain! There isn't one neuron in sight. I've explained your afterlife point above. And I've explained my use of 'brain thinking' is shorthand so I don't have to type so much in repeated explainations, and you know it.

Show me the “soul”. And what neurons would you expect to find in a soul? If your dualistic hypothesis is correct, the soul/consciousness is immaterial, and therefore does not need a brain. So according to you, consciousness can exist without a brain, but it cannot exist without a brain. However, for your information Albrecht-Buehler (who does not subscribe to intelligent design, and therefore presumably does not believe in a soul), offers the following
G. Albrecht-Buehler’s Cell Intelligence Website
www.basic.northwestern.edu/g-buehler/cellint0.htm

"Cell movement is not random.. The cortex consists of autonomous domains ('microplasts') whose movement is controlled by a control center (centrosome). Microtubules mediate between the control center and the autonomous domains."

Of course you do not take his work any more seriously than that of experts like McClintock, Margulis or Shapiro. Here’s a great quote from McClintock:
“Every component of the organism is as much of an organism as every other part.”

dhw: And here's another hypothesis: if something learns by experience, alters its own DNA in order to cope with changing conditions, looks intelligent, and acts intelligently, then maybe it is intelligent.

DAVID: And we know it can be programmed to look intelligent.

Please tell us what organisms we "know" your God has programmed to look intelligent without their being intelligent.