Evolution and humans: our feet are special (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, October 14, 2018, 11:11 (1983 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: "'Without mast cells, histamine or OEA, we could not survive a marathon or a day-long hike without snacks, or any long period of time without food," said Piomelli. "What's fascinating to me is that a cell that was supposed to be the 'bad guy' in allergies, is the same one that allows us to survive prolonged lack of food or major physical effort.'"

DAVID: When hominins became bipedal running down animals became a way of getting food. The anatomy of our feet and this metabolic arrangement had to occur. Not by chance.

dhw: Yes, it’s amazing how cells and cell communities seem to be able to change their structure and their use in order to cope with changing demands, like the need to run on two feet, or the need to survive prolonged lack of food. Definitely not by chance. Of course it is possible than an unknown power preprogrammed bipedal feet and mast cells, histamine or OEA 4.1 billion years ago, or popped in to fiddle with the anatomy of a few individual hominins before they even started running after animals. Or maybe (if he exists) he simply invented a mechanism that enabled the cell communities of which all organisms are composed to change their own structures and functions. But for some reason you don’t seem to think that he would want to create such a mechanism, because although apparently we mustn’t guess what he wants because that would mean humanizing him, you happen to know what he wants (i.e. “total innovation control” via auto-piloting or dabbling).

DAVID: I'll drop back to Adler: humanizing God is superstition, not real religion. You constantly view Him through a human lens, and we cannot appreciate His level of thought. You totally left religious thought and practice when young. You are looking at religious thought from the outside. According to Adler, who was a philosophical adviser to the Catholic Church, there are religious guidelines which help in thinking about God and the limits of how we might imagine his thoughts. You don't recognize them. Adler spends a chapter on the subject.

Since you, Adler and I are human, and since nobody can know the mind of God (if he exists), I’m afraid I do not accept Adler’s or your authority on how one can and can’t think about God. Sorry. In any case, Adler’s views on how to think about God are totally irrelevant to the subject under discussion here, which is the question of whether your God preprogrammed or dabbled bipedal feet and mast cells, histamine and OEA before hungry humans started running after animals, or alternatively gave their cell communities the autonomous ability to change their own structures and functions in response to the needs of the time. But I can understand your desire to change the subject.


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