More Miscellany: Bechly reappears (General)

by David Turell , Sunday, May 26, 2024, 17:30 (31 days ago) @ dhw

ID science

dhw: Initially you told us ID scientists didn’t mention God either. Shapiro’s theory does not exclude God – he simply doesn’t go into the origin of cellular intelligence. Do ID scientists agree with you that your God’s method of fulfilling his one and only goal (us plus food) was “messy”, “cumbersome” and “inefficient”?

DAVID: Never discussed.

dhw: So unlike Shapiro, you don’t have any scientists supporting your theory of evolution.

ID believes God used a designed evolution to design humans!! Most are religious, but some like Bechly simply accept the idea of a designer did it.

DAVID: ID never defines God' person in any way. They assume He is a good designer at the speciation level.

dhw: So it’s no use calling on ID-ers to support your various self-contradictory theories, including that of inefficient evolution. You’re just left with the thousands of theologians with their different theories from your own, but apparently all supporting you by obeying certain guidelines you won’t tell us about.

DAVID: I've given you the guidelines, follow them. God is not a person.

I don’t know of anyone who thought he was.

DAVID: Any characteristics are allegorical in meaning. His desires about us are 50/50, a neutral view.

dhw: So there is a 50/50 chance that he has some thought patterns and emotions like ours – as opposed to your current view that he is “certainly not human in any sense”. (See the evolution thread.)

See thread for a full discussion of the word 'neutral'.

The brain: studies on memory

DAVID: This is an extraordinary paper as it describes a brain as an organ that runs its own show. It actually decides what to record with what degree of importance to ascribe to it!!

dhw: The brain is a community of cell communities, and so this means that the cells actually run their own show and actually decide what to record etc. If brain cells run this show and make decisions, perhaps you will acknowledge that other cells (whose autonomous intelligence was possibly designed by your God) might do the same?

DAVID: God instructs cells how to react in instructions in DNA.

dhw: Your God has planted instructions in every cell for every reaction to every new situation, has he?

No, some minor adaptations occur without God.

Duckbill dinosaurs and trans-oceanic dispersal

DAVID: Bechly continues with a wry look at Darwinist just-so explanations: swimming, rafting, the geology is wrong, there were archipelagoes to skip along, etc. Any excuse to explain the fossil dispersal.

dhw: So what is Bechly’s explanation?

DAVID: A designer did it.

dhw: Did what? Carried duckbill dinosaurs across the ocean? Or decided to create brand new duckbill dinosaurs “de novo” on the other side of the ocean, as they were so essential for his design of humans and our food?

I don't know Bechly's exact thinking. He believes in the designer, so that would probably
mean de novo in two places. His main thrust is Darwin is totally inadequate to explain it.