Cellular intelligence (Evolution)

by dhw, Thursday, March 24, 2022, 11:48 (973 days ago) @ David Turell

Bird migration

dhw: You asked about the first attempt – i.e. the origin of migration. Your account is exactly what I am suggesting, and I don’t know why you suddenly bring in planning. Now would you please answer the question you keep ignoring: Why is it OK for God to choose a spot thousands of miles away, but “just-so woolly” if birds find the spot themselves?

DAVID: Ah, planning. You've chosen the birds did it on their own: did they plan for enough onboard energy supply to fly over 10,000 miles of ocean? Your answer?

How many more times? No planning. They set out to look for a suitable warm spot. Eventually they found one. No doubt some died on the way. But some got there, and their descendants have gone there ever since. Now, for the umpteenth time of asking, please tell us why your God chose to make them fly 10,000 miles – and while you’re at it, please tell us what provisions you think he made to supply them with enough energy to cover the 10,000 miles he made them fly.

How cells communicate

dhw: Thank you for the additional details and for acknowledging that there has to be an intelligence which processes the information and composes the message which the molecules convey. I’m sure you’ll agree that this sounds more plausible than your God providing instructions to cover every attack in the history of life.

DAVID: You're catching on to how immunity works: the cells can recognize an invader by God's instructions and they add standard killing biochemical agents to the invader. The agents are produced following God's instructions in their cellular DNA.

Oops! No, that’s not how I envisage immunity working. I don’t see your God telling the cells the name, rank and number of each new invader, or providing a list of invaders covering the rest of time. Ditto the biochemical agents that will be required for each and every new invader. I think that would be just a little far-fetched. What I can envisage is your God giving cells the ability to recognize danger when it hits them, and to cooperate in working out what “biochemical agents” might kill the invaders. But they can’t always do this (think of pandemics), whereas you’d have thought that if an all-powerful God provided your list of instructions, they could hardly go wrong.