David's theory of evolution: James A. Shapiro's view (Evolution)

by David Turell , Saturday, December 14, 2019, 15:55 (1804 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Once a species of bacteria appears they will then vary on their own with adaptations. God is not needed for in species variation.

dhw: So God is not needed for their adaptations, and they find their own solutions (e.g. to new medicines) in order to remain themselves. How can they possibly do this without the cognitive faculties which until now you have insisted were merely preprogrammed instructions?

Obvious.. They have programmed instruction in how to make adaptations to new challenges.

DAVID: Of course they act cognitively, but in my view it is automatic. We are playing with words.

dhw: You are playing with words. You agree that they are cognitive, but you insist that they are not cognitive because they are automatically obeying your God’s instructions.

Whoa! Acting cognitively recognized what they look like they are doing automatically.

dhw: Since stem cells can change their identity, they are obviously at the heart of the evolutionary process. Of course nobody knows how any cells “arrived on the scene”, but if cells are cognitive, sentient, communicating, decision-making beings, and some of them can change their identity, and they are faced with the new challenge of changing environments, we certainly have a broad hint as to how the mechanisms of evolution may work.

DAVID: In my view God changes the stem cell programming for new species and for you they hold a committee meeting.

dhw: Let’s spell it out then: according to you, every single innovation was either preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago, with stem cells somehow knowing which programme to switch on at which time, or your God personally dabbled with the stem cells of each forerunner of every species (all organized and timed to fit in with his decision not to achieve the only thing he wanted to achieve, which was the production of us). Is that a fair summary of your fixed belief?

Your usual twisted version of my beliefs.

DAVID: The other problem is that in embryology there are other physico-chemical-electrical forces that have shown to play roles, so it is not just making cells with new functions. Articles on this is mainly generalizations.

dhw: Presumably you think these forces were also programmed 3.8 billion years ago to play their appropriate role in speciation – or God popped in to adjust these forces as required.

It is obvious once a new species exists it know fully how to make new copies. For me God speciates.