Natures wonders: seabirds food finding flight patterns (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 13:36 (1681 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: There is no clear finding of these lines collapsing on schools of fish, so presently all we have are human guesses on how all this might work. This is not how birds of a feather flock together normally.

dhw: It always amazes me that people should be surprised when organisms find new ways to help them survive. It takes just one tiny intellectual adjustment to understand it perfectly: humans are not the only intelligent species on this planet.

DAVID: You love to equate tiny intellectual properties in other species just to diminish the vast difference we exhibit. It doesn't help your cause at all, transparently weak.

It has nothing to do with the vast difference between their level of intelligence and ours! Is this strategy a sign of intelligence or not? If it is, why do you talk of human guesses on how it might work? If it isn’t, then what other guesses do you have? Generally you insist that all Nature’s wonders (like the weaverbird's nest) are performed by automatons obeying God’s instructions or “guidelines”, whereas I propose that these life forms have autonomous intelligence.

DAVID: Clever Plasmodium falciparum that learns these tricks to cause black water fever, the common name. My view is it came in the beginning with these attributes present. Otherwise the human immune system might have destroyed it. dhw will ask about God's role. Well, He obviously allowed it to evolve, assuming our braininess could handle it.

dhw:[…[ As for God’s role, what do you mean “allowed it to evolve”. I thought he specially designed everything. You’re not telling us all of a sudden that he gave organisms the freedom to evolve themselves, are you? Well, that’s a U-turn if ever there was one. Previously, I seem to remember you “humanizing” your God by telling us that he designed these things to test us – but I can’t be sure of that. In any case, you certainly wouldn’t say that now, would you?

DAVID: Yes, I would. Your memory of my thought about these disease challenges is correct. God gave us great brains to try to solve these problems, and note we've solved most, haven't we?

Why do you think God wants to test us?

DAVID: As for the bold please follow the full drift of all comments: "Well, He obviously allowed it to evolve," means "it came in the beginning with these attributes present". Both my sentences that have related explanatory meaning! If God is in charge of evolution of course He allows results. Pick, pick, pick without thought analysis!

You claim that your God directly designed every species, and so of course every species would have come with its attributes present at the beginning (except apparently for whales and humans). So either he directly designed the viruses or they evolved of their own accord. Which is it?

QUOTE (under "T cells"): "Previously people thought that memory T cells had two stages of development, but we discovered there is a whole spectrum of memory experience. From naïve T cells that have never been activated, to highly trained memory T cells which can react quickly, and many intermediate T cells in between. This spectrum not only affects how fast a cell can respond, but even what signals it can respond to."

DAVID: Fighting infections is a lifelong battle. T cells are beautifully designed for the
battle, but not perfectly. They can overreact and cause autoimmune diseases.

So what is your theory here? Did your God deliberately design the imperfections in order to test human ability to solve the problems with our great brains? Or are these imperfections the result of mechanisms left to organize themselves?