Natures wonders: Subsea Microorganisms Long Life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, August 25, 2018, 15:37 (2280 days ago) @ dhw

TONY: Further, now you are not simply suggesting that microbes in a SINGLE organism create internal changes, but that they somehow communicate those changes to others of their kind WITHOUT reproduction (because speciation makes them incompatible).

Horizontal gene transfer allows for modifications of attributes, but not new species. Tony makes a good point.

Back to Wendy and Willy, multiplied by millions. Environmental change leads to cell communities in that area also changing. Not one single organism, but multiple organisms, because if they don’t change they will die, or if the change offers new opportunities, they will ALL exploit them.

dhw (to David): I keep repeating that in my proposal evolution progresses through responses to environmental changes as opposed to divine dabbling or preprogramming in advance of environmental changes Your proposal also raises the never answered question of the extent to which your God controls the environment.

TONY: […] There is a grand design, of which we know only a minuscule fraction. Life has been used in furtherance of that design. The weather patterns are part of this design. They do need to be managed, but not micromanaged. […] Could he manipulate it himself, yes, but I do not think he does it directly the majority of the time.

dhw: With my theist hat on, I also allow for sporadic divine dabbling. But David believes all innovations were preprogrammed or dabbled IN ADVANCE of environmental change. His pre-whales were given fins before they entered the water. Therefore either David's God has a crystal ball or he organizes EVERY environmental change.

My view is God developed seal-, sea lion-. and walrus-like forms of the whale series where the animals ere comfortable in both environments. Nothing else feels logical.