Cellular intelligence (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, March 06, 2022, 15:17 (781 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: To repeat: immune cells recognize non-self, and automatically attach killing protein, and remember to do it in the future.

dhw: I suggest that if he exists, he gave cells the ability to work out their own solutions, though we know for a fact that in many cases they are unable to do so. Their intelligence is limited. And in your theory, somewhat surprisingly perhaps, your all-knowing God’s instructions are also limited.

DAVID: Yes, we get sick. Immune response is not immediate in success, but immune cells make antibodies to all attackers automatically.

dhw: That is your theory – though you also tell us that they obey your God’s instructions. So tell us why sometimes the immune system fails to produce antibodies, and we humans have to intervene.

DAVID: They always produce antibodies, but if they are not adequate for the job, now we can add antibiotics or antivirals.

dhw: So your God’s instructions are inadequate. So much for his all-powerful all-knowingness. But – assuming he exists – it all makes perfect sense if he designed cells to design their own means of survival, thus creating the vast variety of conflicts and of cooperative combinations, including those involving the sometimes victorious immune system and its sometimes victorious invaders.

Back to theodicy from long ago. God gave us the antibodies to use! We only had to discover what molds and bacteria do to protect themselves in the constant war to survive by eating. Perhaps you would prefer a god who invented life not requiring new energy every day?