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

by dhw, Thursday, January 30, 2020, 10:19 (1757 days ago) @ David Turell

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.

DAVID: 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.

Of course nobody knows, which is why we have different theories. If organisms have the autonomous intelligence to make minor modifications, the theory we have been discussing is the possibility that the same intelligence may be capable of major modifications. Meanwhile, please clarify as requested above, now in bold. Thank you.

DAVID: (under “virus sponge symbiosis”): The bush of life has many interlocking helpful arrangements, such as the human microbiome. Now more evidence of a helpful virome. This adds to our recognition of the importance of interlocked econiches which are just as helpful in supporting all of life. All of living organisms have a degree of dependence upon all other organisms. Not all viruses are dangerous like the new Chinese Corona virus. The competition which is a large part of the Darwin theory is only a small part of the story. Viruses, which are only partially alive in the sense they must be part of fully independent living forms, play a major role in life and perhaps in driving evolution, as previously proposed. Looks like they were created for a major set of purposes.

It was Lynn Margulis who pioneered the idea that symbiosis and cooperation in general was a key factor in evolution.
QUOTE: "Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking" (i.e., by cooperation, interaction, and mutual dependence between living organisms)

Please note that she was also a firm believer in bacterial intelligence:

Bacterial Intelligence - Astrobiology Magazine
https://www.astrobio.net/origin-and-evolution-of-life/bacterial-intelligence

Astrobiology Magazine: In Microcosmos, you talk about bacterial intelligence. A lot of people have trouble with that concept because […] they tend to think intelligence comes from brains.

LM: I know they do. They’re wrong.

AM: Can you explain how you view bacteria as being intelligent?

LM: If you look up consciousness in the dictionary, it says, "awareness of the world around you," and that’s because you lose it somehow when you become unconscious, right? Well, you can show that microorganisms, or bacteria, are certainly conscious. They will orient themselves, they will work together to make structures. They’ll do a lot of things. This ability to respond specifically to the environment and to act creatively, in the sense that that precise action has never been taken before, is a property of life.

Shapiro is in good company.