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

by David Turell , Wednesday, January 29, 2020, 19:54 (1758 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: No, all it shows is that God planned in advance for the future of evolution. Bacteria had to have these abilities to live on their own with automatic responses to challenges.

dhw: If their responses are automatic, then your God must have preprogrammed them to solve every problem throughout the history of life. No “abilities” necessary. Actually it is your fixed belief that ALL undabbled evolutionary changes were preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago. And every single one, extant and extinct, was designed for the sole purpose of eventually producing H. sapiens!

DAVID: God produced us through evolution is my belief.

dhw: If God exists, he produced all life through evolution, including us. Please clarify once and for all: do you believe that your God preprogrammed every single bacterial response to every single problem throughout the history of life, or do you believe he gave them the autonomous intelligence to solve such problems themselves? Please avoid obfuscation through such terms as “guidelines”, which we know from the past is just another word for preprogramming.

Please remember God is in charge of controlling evolution. All we know for sure is living organisms can make some minor modifications or adaptations epigenetically, but we do not know how speciation occurs, and I believe God does it.

DAVID (under “Adapting to climate change”): We all know that organisms respond to temperature and light changes. Temperature response changes are shown by deciduous trees leafing out in Spring and we all recognize circadian rhythms in our sleep patterns. This obvious finding shows genes in control, as expected. The genes follow instructions after receiving the stimuli indicating changes. Note my bold. Shapiro's original bacterial discoveries at work in more complex organisms, just as he predicted!

dhw: You are slowly beginning to get the message that organisms respond to changes in conditions and do not anticipate them – or rather your God does not preprogramme them to change in anticipation of new conditions. When you say “the genes follow instructions” and refer to Shapiro, I hope you are remembering Shapiro’s theory that cells are cognitive, sentient beings which process information, communicate with one another, and make their own decisions, i.e. issue their own instructions.

I know how Shapiro stretches his bacterial discoveries. I did not discuss how genes are modified. I'm referring to how genes help responses to stimuli, as in bacteria, nothing more.