More "miscellany" PART TWO (General)

by David Turell @, Saturday, November 19, 2022, 17:01 (495 days ago) @ dhw

PART TWO

How fungus attacks frogs

DAVID: it is still a dog eat dog out there. Since the fungus lifestyle is to feast on others, it is obvious they must use a variety of attacking mechanisms which were designed for them.

dhw: Why “designed for them”? Dog eat dog is the great battle for survival, as every life form has to eat. Why should your God specially design frogs and then specially design fungal mechanisms to wipe them out? Oh, I know your answer: He has His reasons. I would suggest that the great battle for survival seems far more like a free-for-all than the work of a God carefully designing every life form and every means whereby one life form he has designed destroys another life form he has designed.

The dog-eat-dog reality that is present is your desired free-for-all. Great!


How roots find water

DAVID: Once plants appeared they had to be in constant contact with water. Plants developed in ocean so that was not a problem. It is a giant jump to purch on dry land. Roots can't just spring into soil. Is it a Darwinian solution in itty-bitty steps or is design required.

QUOTE: "Roots play a critical role to reduce the impact of water stress on plants by adapting their shape (such as branching or growing deeper) to secure more water. Discovering how plant roots sense and adapt to water stress is vital importance for helping 'future proof' crops to enhance their climate resilience.(dhw’s bold)

dhw: Again we are dealing with survival. All life, including plants, is made of cells, and cells look to survive. I can well imagine that when plants first appeared on land (maybe their watery habitats dried up) vast numbers would have died, but those that found a solution then naturally multiplied. Just as millions of bacteria die until the clever ones find an antidote to the killers we design. In answer to your question: yes, itty-bitty steps until the most intelligent cell communities have established themselves, and yes, design is required. And in turn, it may well be that your God designed the intelligent cells that designed the successful roots. All just a theory, of course, but sensing and adapting are among the hallmarks of autonomous intelligence, and it all fits together into a beautifully logical pattern.

From your long discussion all I see is the need for design. The innumerable required spontaneous mutations will take an enormous amount of time if the plants wait for them to arrive.


Horizontal gene transfer

DAVID: it is widely accepted Archaea were the first life, so it is no surprise transferring integrons were there. Note my bolds. They are a way to fast-track evolution. It is a tool for a designing God to use.

dhw: One might also say it is a tool for bacteria and archaea to use – and your God may have designed it.

DAVID: Of course.

dhw: I hope this acceptance denotes openness to the possibility of cells autonomously using their perhaps God-given intelligence.

No. Cells are automatic on instructions from God.


How life evolved the Earth

QUOTE: "...if we are distinguished by the scale and speed of our impacts, we are also distinguished by our awareness. As far as anyone can tell, humans are the only lifeforms that have ever been able to study the world and know what we do – and that brings opportunity. Perhaps, together, we can reduce our impacts and develop a new ethos of planetary care.”

A very timely reminder that our unique degree of awareness has given us the power to kill the Earth. I would suggest that together we MUST reduce our impacts and develop a new ethos of planetary care.

DAVID: a beautifully written essay, extremely long, containing a biography of Darwin's magnificent research in many directions. It clearly shows how the appearance of life totally transformed the Earth.

dhw: It’s refreshing to hear your praise of Darwin, and also to share the author’s wonderment.

Though you'd enjoy it. I sneer at Darwinism, the abortion of a theory created after he was gone. Not the man who was admirable in his efforts.


Complete thread:

 RSS Feed of thread

powered by my little forum