Evolution and humans: our feet are special (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, October 17, 2018, 15:21 (2227 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: I've not invented a 'magical' God the concept has been around long before I arrived. Based on the designs I see in biology, He is a necessary being.

dhw: I did not say you invented God! You dismiss as “pure magic” the hypothesis that your God may have designed autonomous cellular intelligence, so I asked how you would describe your God’s hypothetical computer programme or dabbling of every innovation in the history of life. Once more: why is my hypothesis more “magical” than yours?

DAVID (under “Immunity: gene controls"): What cannot be avoided is logic about cells. Either they are intelligently designed to have intelligent responses to stress and stimuli or somehow or other they have their own form of intelligence and use it. Either Shapiro or I am correct, as only those two presumptions are operational. My choice is obvious. "Guiding intelligence" can certainly be implanted intelligent instructions for proper automatic responses to the few stimuli bacteria receive.

dhw: My point was to stop you from summarizing Shapiro’s work and coupling it with your own conclusion, which is diametrically opposed to his. This can be summed up as: “cells are intelligent agents that direct their own development”. You are absolutely right that these are the only two options, and I find it astonishing that you are not even prepared to consider the opinions of Shapiro, McClintock, Margulis, Buehler, all of whom spent a lifetime studying the behaviour of cells.

It may surprise you but I have studied biology of cells and especially humans all of my life! The point is neither you nor I know how speciation occurred, but I have a view, expressed many times, that the complexities of biological design require a designing mind. You have extrapolated cells intelligent responses to stimuli to a massive ability to construct new forms of life, while the cells I know have no concept of design. Design requires knowing in advance how a newly conceptualized living form will adequately handle its role in life in the future. And I agree with you and your cohort of biologists. Single cells act with intelligent responses to stimuli, but no more than that. They follow intelligent instructions.