Natures wonders: trees induce ants to protect them;symbiosis (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, August 02, 2018, 19:12 (2303 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: We don't know that the Acacias solved the problem by themselves and all you've said is the problem got solved, so God is a possibility and natural evolution is not.

dhw: Nobody “knows”. My hypothesis – explicitly stated (see bold) – is that acacias solved the problem by themselves. That would be natural evolution, the theistic version of which would be that your God endowed cells/cell communities with the autonomous ability to solve problems. However, recalling Tony’s point that autonomy would also involve failure, 99% of species are believed to have gone extinct. The acacias were among those species that succeeded in solving their problem. I do not think this is any more “just-so” than the hypothesis that your God dabbled or preprogrammed every success but didn’t dabble in 99% of cases, or even preprogrammed all the failures.

The issue you have avoided is timing. Did the Acacias do it all at once or take time, and if they took time, how did they survive during that evolutionary interval?