Introducing the brain: neurons in fat signal the brain (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, September 02, 2022, 19:11 (595 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTE: "It adds yet another layer to the already complicated interplay between our genes, environments, diet, and microbiome, which all contribute to our levels of these important insulating energy stores”

dhw: It’s not just energy stores that are involved in this interplay. It’s life itself and evolution. Our bodies are a community of communities, all working together, and all responding to the external conditions in which they live.

DAVID: the design of our body leaves nothing to chance. It is obvious the brain must know about every system in our body, and we need to keep finding them. God's careful controls designs.

dhw: Firstly, we should note that this research is being done on mice. The basic processes resulting from the above interplay are not confined to us humans. (I am simply pointing this out – it is not a criticism of your comment.) The interplay and cooperation are clearly not the result of chance: an analogy might be found in other types of community, such as ants, who cooperate in designing complex cities and social structures that enable them to make best use of the environment in which they live. Mice, humans and ants form Chapter 2 in the history of life, and in all our discussions, the focus is not on chance versus design, but on what does the designing. You believe in divine preprogramming 3.8 billion years ago or divine dabbling ad hoc; I propose (belief is too strong a word for me) that micro- as well as macro-organisms have the autonomous ability to do their own designing. Chapter 1 concerns the origin of life and of this possible autonomous ability. You believe the origin (first cause) is the unknown and unknowable, eternal, conscious being you call God. Another possibility is a chance combination resulting from the endless interplay between eternal, unconscious matter and energy (first cause). I find each of these proposals equally difficult to accept. More fool me, since one of them must be correct.

A restatement of your thinking is appropriate here.