Bacterial Intelligence? self ID virus that kills enemies (General)

by David Turell , Monday, April 29, 2019, 22:16 (2033 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Same approach: God started life by designing a very complex code to carry instructions (information) to form and control all the processes of life. Science is showing that DNA may be a protein coding mechanism but huge parts of the code are not just genes but interpreters and modifiers of genes. The complexity is only partially unraveled, but in my view the future will find a degree of complexity we can only imagine at this time. That is what I refer to as God's initial program.

dhw: There can be no doubt that a programme for every single undabbled innovation, lifestyle and natural wonder will be mind-bogglingly complex, and all you are saying now is that this mind-bogglingly complex programme will be discovered in the future.

And my point is that degree of complexity will require an acceptance that God did it.

DAVID: A protein molecule is not like as trained dog. It reacts to other proteins in a series of reactions, as far as I am concerned all set off automatically.

dhw: Molecules react automatically to receive information and to implement decisions. But what sets off the process of implementation (i.e. decision-making) is a mystery. You tell us your God must have preprogrammed or dabbled all the decisions or steps for whenever a decision is required. A theistic alternative is that he gave all organisms, including bacteria, the means by which to take their own decisions. Simple choice for you. You have now at least acknowledged that your own choice is not a belief, which I find encouraging.

DAVID: I view God as maintaining full control at all times.

dhw: I know you do, and that means an undiscovered, 3.8-billion-year-old programme for all undabbled developments, including bacterial behaviour for the rest of time, though you don’t actually believe in it.

My belief system simply proposes how God might have exerted His controls.

DAVID: How God controlled the advances of evolution are logical speculations. Bacterial decisions follow logical underlying algorithms.

dhw: Your “algorithms” are the same as your “intelligent instructions” which are the same as your 3.8 billion-year-old computer programme for every single undabbled decision. You may introduce as many scientific terms as you like, but you are still faced with a stark choice between these two options and cellular intelligence, and I remain encouraged by the fact that your personal choice is not a belief.

DAVID: I've expressed my view of the original genome above as related to the start of life. The genome contains enormous amounts of intelligent information to exert control over life's processes.

dhw: According to you it contains ALL the instructions for ALL processes except those that your God personally dabbled. I’m not surprised that you don’t actually believe it.

Distorting what I have stated again: God is in charge, created a massively complex genome in all its various layers of control to create all of the evolutionary processes. Precise knowledge of how God exerted controls is unknown but I have presented obvious possibilities.