More "miscellany" PART TWO (General)

by dhw, Saturday, December 10, 2022, 08:21 (474 days ago) @ David Turell

PART TWO

Pigeon brains

QUOTE: The authors speculate that complex cognitive needs such as song and flight could have pushed the evolution of more efficient brain cells. (David’s bold and color)

DAVID: […] The red portion asks for evolution pushed by activity, chance mutations required. The activity you use as a comparison to the article is brain plasticity, not evolution. God gave them those brains with instructions.

dhw: The article does not mention chance mutations! Those would precede the ability to sing and fly, but the article says that the need to sing and fly is what pushed the evolution of the brain cells. First the need, and then the changes […]. Of course brain plasticity is required if new needs call for changes.

DAVID: Still accepting Darwin-speak. For each need there naturally appears a solution.

I have no idea what you are referring to. The brain changes as it responds to needs. Yes or no?

Diversity saved mammals

This discussion ended in the same distortion we tackled earlier:

DAVID: Same comment: with God in charge evolution is full of errors, due to His bad judgement. Evolution with purpose is just wrongly conducted.
And under “Denisovans”:
DAVID: God did the whole thing wrong, in your judgement.

You have turned the whole discussion on its head. It is you who have emphasized that all evolutions have to produce “errors”, and that is how you try to “explain” why your God specially designed all the dead ends! I suggest that if an all-powerful God was in charge, whatever he designed would be precisely what he wanted to design. I have no problem with the concept of experimentation to explain the dead ends, but you discount it although you insist that evolution advances through failed experiments. Getting new ideas as he goes along fits in nicely with your idea that he enjoys creating and watches his creations with interest. A free-for-all explains nearly all the problems we discuss, including so-called “errors” and theodicy.

Cells move by electric charges

DAVID: it appears that these are automatic processes to more (move?) toward a stimulus.

dhw: How cells move is an automatic process. How they know where and when to move, and what decisions motivate their movements and eventually their responses, is always the issue. Hence your theory of divine instructions and Shapiro’s theory of cellular intelligence.

DAVID: Single cells have sensory capacities. They are programed to know what they should respond to.

Cell communities also have sensory capacities! These do indeed inform them of what they should respond to. They must then decide HOW to respond. You say your God gave them instructions 3.8 billion years ago or ad hoc, and Shapiro says they make their own decisions.


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