bacterial (cellular) intelligence shown to be DNA driven (Animals)

by dhw, Friday, December 22, 2017, 11:07 (2527 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Please simply tell me whether you think the immune cells were preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago with solutions to every single problem thrown at them by invaders for the rest of time, or whether they were given the mechanism with which to learn by experience and make their own decisions about how to kill invaders.
DAVID: They were evolved to automatically learn to kill invaders.

dhw: A masterly response. I can only squirm in admiration. They didn’t evolve but “were evolved” (i.e. presumably God guided them), and they learned by experience and changed their DNA according to what they had learned, but they didn’t learn by experience or change their DNA according to what they had learned, because they were automatons merely obeying instructions. The evasion suggests to me that you realize how absurd the 3.8-billion-year-old computer programme for every innovation, lifestyle, natural wonder and cellular adaptation really is. So why not accept the possibility that immune cells were given the mechanism with which to learn by experience and make their own decisions accordingly?

DAVID: The cells were given an automatic mechanism from the start of life to protect them from the viral enemies that probably arrived at the same time. They could learn by experience and had a guided mechanism for proper reponses, just as our immune cells do now. Vaccinations work because of this ability.

I suggest that the unnamed mechanism the cells were given from the start of life was intelligence, and they automatically used and use and will go on using their intelligence to come up with the proper responses to each new experience. What do you mean by “guided mechanism”? You have come up with no form of guidance other than a 3.8-billion-year-old computer programme or direct dabbling, in which case there is no need for the cells to learn anything by experience. Your God does it all.