Genome complexity: variation within species (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, December 13, 2016, 12:52 (2684 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I am emphasizing individual differences in the variability in species, which means, as I pointed out in bacteria, some have alternate pathways already on board, or are partially immune to begin with. That means new adaptations don't have to be invented. Reproduction between partially immune or pollution resistant individuals will solve the issue as more fit individuals appear on the scene in a few generations.

dhw:I am also talking about individual differences in the variability in species, because both adaptations and innovations must take place in individuals.

DAVID: Of course we are discussing individuals, who are variable and have differing strengths to handle increasing pollution levels.

Precisely.

DAVID: The strong ones reproduce and survive and their progeny survive. Why is that so hard to understand?

I said exactly the same, using your own words, in my very next sentence:

dhw: Why is your theory more likely than the hypothesis that some individuals are able to work out a counter to the threat, and then “reproduction between immune or pollution resistant individuals will solve the issue as more fit individuals appear on the scene in a few generations”?

DAVID: Because what I have described is the accepted explanation for resistance.

What part of your theory is “accepted”? That your God provided alternative pathways for the first cells to pass on to bacteria, so that in a million different situations some of them would be able to resist the new threat to their existence by switching onto the correct pathway without knowing what they were doing? What is accepted is that bacteria find answers to countless problems. Scientists can analyse the answers, which of course are physical since the problems are also physical. What they cannot analyse is how the bacteria come up with those answers. You propose that your God preprogrammed them to do so automatically. I propose that they have the intelligence (perhaps God-given) to work out each new programme. You have said yourself that nobody can tell the difference from outside, and nobody can get inside. 50/50.