Bacterial Intelligence? self ID using a virus (General)

by dhw, Wednesday, April 24, 2019, 10:17 (2038 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Of course if God exists he must have had a purpose in creating life in all its different forms. But that does not mean he specially designed all the different forms, or that his purpose for doing so was that they should eat or not eat one another until he specially designed H. sapiens! Perhaps I did not make my control argument clear. If you were to accept the concept of cellular intelligence, i.e. that your God deliberately created a mechanism whereby organisms did their own designing autonomously, you would be forced to abandon your fixed hypothesis that your God wanted total control. Hence perhaps your vehement opposition to it, despite your 50/50 odds either way. In any case, you have repeatedly accepted the possibility that your God did not actually have total control, e.g. 5 February under “God and Evolution”:

DAVID: I have clearly stated God may be unlimited or limited. History allows both possibilities…

dhw: One day you clearly state that he is in full control, and the next you say he may have limits.

dhw: The concept of autonomous cellular intelligence allows for God’s powers to be unlimited, but for him to have made the choice to give up control – just as you believe he has done by giving humans free will. In both cases, he would have established a system based on the principle of “Let’s see what happens…” – though always allowing himself the option of dabbling.

DAVID: We are debating a totally purposeful God, my view, vs. a tentative God which I think is your view. Of course, I've admitted God may have limits, but my position is I strongly doubt it. Since you live in doubt, you will posit all sorts of possibilities about God. I am sure will have some areas of agreement, but more than likely it will be mostly disagreements.

A “totally purposeful God” is not what we are debating at all. On this thread the subject is cellular intelligence and its relevance to your God’s use of evolution to achieve his purpose(s). In my proposal there is “total” purpose and nothing tentative, the purpose being to create a process that will provide the ever changing spectacle of life which constitutes its history (but always allowing for dabbles). I am suggesting that your vehement opposition to the concept of cellular intelligence – despite your setting the odds at 50/50 – is that it represents a major threat to your strong belief that your always-in-control God’s one and only purpose was to produce H. sapiens, linked to your proposal (but not belief) that for no apparent reason – you have “no idea” why he chose this method – he specially designed every life form in life’s history for the purpose of getting them to eat or not eat one another until he specially designed the only thing he wanted to design.