More Denton: A new book (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, February 29, 2016, 13:30 (2980 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: I don't know why you've changed autonomous to independent, but if something simply follows instructions, it is neither autonomous nor independent. “Pre-planned instructions” = your 3.8-billion-year computer programme, so you are only muddying the waters when you equate it with an “independent IM”. Nor do I know why you should consider such a mechanism to be any more of a fairy tale than a fixed programme for the whole of evolution, but I presume you will not deny that if God can create such a programme, he is also capable of creating the AUTONOMOUS mechanism I have described above.-DAVID: To my view autonomous and independent IM's are the same if God programs them with his instructions onboard. It autonomously runs to produce the results He wants, or since it is pre-programmed it runs independently to serve his purpose.-You are the only person I know who defines autonomous/independent as meaning dependent on instructions which have to be obeyed. This is like an atheist defining God as a fictional being invented by humans. Autonomy means the ability to make decisions and to act without instructions or coercion from anyone else. You are of course welcome to believe that the inventive mechanism is a 3.8-billion-year computer programme implanted by God, but please, please, please don't call it autonomous or independent.-And please tell us if you think your God is incapable of creating an AUTONOMOUS mechanism as I have defined it.