More Denton: Reply to David (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, July 25, 2015, 15:37 (3200 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: It does not alter the fact that you seem unable to conceive of any form of intelligence other than our own. That is why you concoct a 3.8 billion-year-computer programme for all wonders and innovations rather than grant your God the capacity to create a different form of intelligence.-Please note my entry today on extremophiles.-> DAVID: He might have given them an IM, I've agreed.
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> dhw: No, until now you have insisted that it is not autonomous but is preprogrammed or dabbled with (concepts you try to gloss over with the weasel word “guided”). That does NOT constitute inventiveness. Do you now agree that he might have given other organisms the ability to do their own exquisite planning?
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> dhw: When discussing cells, you always focus on the chemical processes that accompany the actions they perform, but these do not explain the decision-making process that leads to those actions.-> DAVID: Those decision-making processes can all be automatic biochemical reactions, just as our kidney cells decide the urine concentrations for the day.
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> dhw: “Can be”. They can also be mental processes, just as our brain produces decisions, strategies, and inventions. You have already agreed that each possibility is as likely as the other, and yet you still exclude one because it does not fit in with your preconceptions.-They are not mental processes. As shown in research reported today they are automatic alterations in gene expression controlled by specialized proteins.- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150724151844.htm -I will place this article as a separate entry so all are aware of I and can review it. This is an example of the progression of research that I anticipate will eventually show that it is all automatic chemistry.
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> dhw: When Tony disagreed with you that humans were God's purpose in creating the universe, you shifted the focus to humans being the pinnacle because they were the most complex. (I presume you now accept that this only applies mentally and not physically.)-I think God controlled evolution as His mechanism to produce beings that could relate to Him. Humans are vastly different: "The difference of Man and the Difference It Makes", is not just mental but physical. Imagine ape basketball if you can! Humans have always been the pinnacle. Tony uses ancient texts, not rational articles. My thoughts have never changed.