David's theory of evolution: Stephen Talbott's view II (Evolution)

by David Turell , Saturday, June 27, 2020, 15:43 (1608 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: “Organisms are not designed and tinkered with from without, but rather are enlivened from within. The wisdom we find at play in them is intrinsic; it is their own in a sense wholly untrue of the external intelligence with which our mechanical inventions are structured.”

DAVID: Talbott strikes again thoughtfully. I have no problem as God runs the show. His ghost is in the machine. This helps explains dhw's problem, about God not have full control over living biology. It pretty much runs itself.

dhw: This does not “explain dhw’s problem”! My whole cellular intelligence theory is based on your God NOT having full control (and choosing not to have it). You could hardly ask for a clearer description of cellular intelligence running the show! You have your God designing and tinkering from without and controlling/designing every life form, natural wonder etc., whereas Talbott has the cells running life from within, as exemplified in the next quote:

QUOTE: Yet within seconds of the assault, the single cells are stirred into action. They use unimaginable senses to detect what has happened and start to respond. Stem cells specialize to become the spiky-looking cells of the stratum spinosum [one of the lower layers of the epidermis]; the shattered capillaries are meticulously repaired, new cells form layers of smooth muscle in the blood-vessel walls and neat endothelium; nerve fibres extend towards the site of the suture to restore the tactile senses …
“These phenomena require individual cells to work out what they need to do. And the ingenious restoration of the blood-vessel network reveals that there is an over-arching sense of the structure of the whole area in which this remarkable repair takes place.”

dhw: Once again, I can only commend your integrity in producing articles that directly support a theory you dislike so intensely.

It is amazing how widely different our interpretations turn out from the same information. I see God's hand in all of this amazing ability of organization by senseless molecules. Life is a symphony of molecular reactions following a framework of information provided initially by God. The ID site directed me to this new Talbott input, indicating a whole cadre of IDers think as I do. The bold is a mistaken idea about God and control over living matter. I'll repeat: the rapid reactions and interactions by organic molecules can make mistakes and God built in corrective measures, but they cannot be perfect and errors will persist. The intelligence cells follow is God's. What Talbott says is seemingly disorganized cells somehow know the forms they must achieve with no evidence of that future in the present. There must be an underlying plan. It is very much like an ant colony, each individual programmed to do its prescribed part, but each ant is not aware of the goal.