More miscellany Parts One & Two (Evolution)

by dhw, Thursday, September 05, 2024, 09:00 (11 days ago) @ David Turell

Black holes needed for life

DAVID: My belief makes perfect sense. It is what God wanted to happen.

dhw: Once more, you have missed the point. The billions of apparently lifeless stars, planets and galaxies are a reason for doubting the very existence of God (as well as your anthropocentric theory of evolution).

DAVID: You don't understand belief! God created the universe as it is for His own reasons. It'd your human reasoning against God's.

"You don’t understand belief!" Some people do not believe that your God exists. Your human reasoning says design makes you believe there is a God. Their human reasoning says that (among other things) the billions of apparently lifeless stars, planets and galaxies make them believe there is no God. Please stop pretending that your belief in God makes God a reality.

God and evolution: weaverbirds (now back to intelligence v instructions)

dhw: […] I suggest that the good and the bad may all have the same autonomous intelligence to work out their various ways of survival.

DAVID: Or are DNA programmed as nest building shows.

dhw: Maybe you could be more precise. Do you mean that your God provided each bird with a precise plan for its individual nest, or do you mean that he provided each bird with the ability to design its own nest?

DAVID: He designed the nests in the bird DNA. some birds do simple modifications.

So 3.8 billion years ago, he provided the first cells with a programme for every species, nest, strategy, lifestyle and natural wonder for the rest of time. Alternatively, he performed endless ad hoc dabbles. And 99.9% of them had no connection with your perfect, omnipotent, omniscient God’s one and only purpose, which was us and our contemporary species – a method you can only ridicule as being imperfect, messy, inefficient etc.

Under “Bacterial intelligence? navigation and sensing” you wrote: "this chemo-sensory ability is built into the bacterial DNA, which certainly makes them move intelligently", but you added that they did this “following instructions”.

dhw: You said they have the ABILITY, but now you talk of instructions. There is a huge difference. Your answer to the bird question should clarify what you mean: did God give them the ability to build their own nests, or did he give them instructions for each form of nest?

DAVID: My sentence above is clear: the bird's DNA carries nest construction instructions.

Thank you for the clarification. Presumably then your God has given all bacteria instructions on whatever movements they should make in their on-going battle for survival. So did he give them instructions to infect us with fatal diseases?

Zombified flies

QUOTE: Once the fungus has infected a fly, it eats the fly from the inside over the course of a week or so while the fly is alive. When nearly all of the fly's nutrients have been consumed, the fungus starts to manipulate the brain and begins to take over the fly's behaviour.

dhw: Yuck! I can well believe that fungi – like all other forms of life – design their own methods of survival, but I can’t help wondering why you think your God would take the trouble to design such processes, especially if all he wanted to do was design us and our food. Do you fancy a dish of fried zombifly?

DAVID: No, but we've met these guys before in zombified ants. All parts of necessary ecosystems.

Necessary for what? Do you honestly believe that your God could not have created us humans and our food without specially designing the complexities of the fly-munching fungus?

Microbiomes in the mouth

QUOTE: Because it is fixed in place, its fast growth could be a means of exploring its environment and looking for sources of food, the researchers say.
"It could be how the microbe gains a competitive advantage in the bacteria-crowded environment of the human mouth.

It seems that bodies are worlds in themselves, containing vast numbers of living things, all competing or cooperating in the great struggle for survival.
And we ourselves are normally not even aware of what is going on inside us. I can only thank you yet again, David, for drawing our attention to these amazing facts about the miracles of life.

Kamikaze termites

QUOTE: "With their exploding rucksacks, older workers may instead specialize in providing a final, deadly act to defend the colony."

DAVID: this very specialized enzyme can only have appeared by design.

More evidence of the amazing social structure developed by these creatures. It’s not only their chemical expertise that boggles the mind, but also the very concept of the individual sacrificing itself for the sake of the community. These are the same insects that build whole cities, have their own farming and storage methods, and design ingenious ways of ensuring their own survival. I don’t know why anyone should assume that termites are not intelligent enough to have done their own designing.

Butterfly wing colors

DAVID: butterfly wings are beautiful. Their purpose might be a God-given aesthetic item to enjoy.

I love it! Butterflies evolved a long, long time before we did, so if your God designed them, might it not be a sign that his purpose in designing them was to create an aesthetic item that HE could enjoy?