Miscellaneous (General)

by David Turell , Thursday, December 05, 2024, 22:50 (16 days ago) @ dhw

Cellular intelligence: renal cell memory

dhw: I would suggest that cell behaviour only looks automatic when cells are performing their routine duties. Intelligence comes into play when something new is required.

DAVID: […] renal cells and liver cells must be able to alter their routines as circumstances require […]

dhw: If they are able to alter their routines as circumstances require, it means they have the ability to do so. Having an ability does not mean having to follow instructions.

DAVID: Yes it does if they use instructions to alter their actions.

dhw: Interesting argument. Then let’s try a different approach. Do they have the ability to disobey your God's instructions?

DAVID: No.

dhw: So when people die from renal or liver failure, it’s because your all-powerful, all-knowing God’s instructions are inadequate. All part of his general inefficiency. I get it.

DAVID: No you don't. People die. Does that make God inadequate? I doubt it.

dhw: Your God has given the cells instructions on how to alter themselves when required to do so; they obey his instructions, but sometimes they fail to alter themselves when required to do so, suffer the consequences, and often die. How does that come to mean that your God’s instructions are adequate? Would it not make more sense if the cells themselves were responsible for their success or failure?

The cells are built to die at some point. All life ends up dead. Not God's fault.

Keeping the brain clean

QUOTE: "It's beautiful to imagine that changing metabolism results in this symphony of molecules cooperating together to improve brain function.'"

DAVID: this adds a whole new approach to protecting the brain. This is certainly a model for design.

dhw: Yet another sensational new discovery. I love the emphasis on molecular cooperation which figures so regularly in these articles, as does the fact that so much research is done on mice, which evolved millions and millions of years before we did. Our brains may be unique in their complexity, but clearly they are the product of evolutionary development. Design? Yes indeed. But what conducts the “symphony”? Back we go to our theories: Darwin’s random mutations, David’s divine dabbles or 3.8 billion-years-old instructions, or Shapiro’s intelligent cells (possibly designed by David’s God)?

DAVID: Cell's only intelligence is from God's designs.

dhw: I have no difficulty accepting the possibility that cellular intelligence is God’s design, as I’ve said in the parenthesis. It’s nice to see that you are no longer rejecting the theory. At least for today.

A designed intelligence is no autonomous intelligence.