Teleology & Neo-thomism (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, October 16, 2015, 01:30 (3121 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Life is machinery but also that something extra we call 'living matter'. So far no researcher in OOL struggles has crossed that threshold. We have no idea where the threshold is. All we have is life and non-living.
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> dhw: I doubt if your author really thinks his readers can't tell the difference between a living organism and a non-living machine, but in any case his observation fits in neatly with the studies of the eminent biologists you accuse of “hyperbole”.-I don't see how. Either it is alive or it isn't
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> dhw; I take them to mean that these organs are individual cellular communities (= organisms) within a cellular community (organism), all cooperating with one another, just as each ant is an individual organism within a community of organisms.-Of course organs are intact cellular communities, each with strict instructions as to how to operate for the good of the whole. And they send instructions to each other automatically to conduct their business of a whole functioning organism -]
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> dhw: Intelligent design (lower case) tells us absolutely nothing about the nature of the designer - that is a different subject altogether. Your author is simply imposing his own beliefs on the science. Free will allows for the possibility of your God detaching himself (deism), and design allows for the possibility that the design will reflect the designer (anthropomorphism).-ID does not define the designer. Anthropomorphism implies human characteristics to God, which is a different statement than yours, unless you limit that definition only to the design of humans. ID looks at design in everything.