Afterlife: Pinker's skeptical thought (Endings)

by dhw, Friday, June 05, 2020, 12:17 (1630 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Of course multicellular communities are more complex than single cells, and of course the bold suggests a definite mental process. That is the basis of the whole theory! And of course the process took millions of years. That is history. Why is cellular intelligence (possibly created by your God) more of a fairy tale than your God preprogramming or dabbling every new complexity in the history of life?

DAVID: The usual non-answer to the degree of complexity that must be explained by the design of automatic intelligent cellular responses. Invoking a god you do not believe in doesn't help your lonely theory. How do you explain the origin of enzymes? Chance?

Cellular intelligence is not my lonely theory. Why do you continue to pretend that Margulis, McClintock, Buehler, Shapiro and Co. never existed? Why do you continue to conflate the theory of cellular intelligence with the unanswered question of origins? We don’t know the origin of consciousness, so does that mean consciousness does not exist? Why are you so terrified of the idea that your God might not have dabbled or programmed every single life form, econiche, strategy, natural wonder in the history of life? Just tell us why a God-made cellular intelligence is more of a fairy tale than God preprogramming or dabbling every new complexity in life?

DAVID: Enzymes from chance combination is sheer lunacy. Without a chemical education you are simply conjuring up pipe dreams.

dhw: If it were that cut-and-dried, all educated chemists and physicists would believe in God! You have traced the progress from plasma to organic compounds, which “exist naturally in the universe”, and I have no doubt that our atheist friends would claim that what followed was equally natural, and the conjuring up of a mysterious mind without a source and somehow within and without the plasma and the compounds and the enzymes is “sheer lunacy”.

DAVID: Only a designing mind explains the complexity. Your only choice is chance or design.

You’ve left out the atheistic panpsychist option (bottom-up intelligence). Many educated chemists and physicists and biologists would claim that your choice is “sheer lunacy” (an expression on an extremist par with terms like “The God Delusion”). I don’t agree with any of you. I recognize the pros and cons of each option, and as none of you can possibly know the truth, I would plead for tolerance, moderate language, and respect.

dhw: You are very good at attacking the faiths you do not accept, but for some reason you remain blind to the problems with your own. However, I'd prefer not to attack your faith, or that of your adversaries. To each his own. I am simply explaining why I can't share it.

DAVID: I know that, but cannot understand the choice.

That puts you exactly on a par with the atheists.