Evolution: the newly-found bacterial role: (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, August 13, 2019, 10:44 (1711 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: ...we are a community of communities, in which cells cooperate to produce a functioning whole, and since many scientists support the theory of bacterial and cellular intelligence (as championed by Margulis), it is perfectly possible that multicellular life (Chapter Two) evolved as a result of these individual organisms pooling their perhaps God-given (Chapter One) intelligences.

DAVID: Note my entry today about a particular Archaea which finally cultured supports your comment.

Thank you. Herewith my comment on your entry:

DAVID (Under "origin of eukaryotes"): Still not well understood, but an amazing advance in studying descendants of early life

And yet more evidence for Margulis’ theory of endosymbiosis, leading to her much wider theory that evolution has come about through cooperation between cells, which she regarded as being intelligent.

Under “Reality”:

dhw: “We are talking about molecular biology, and lots of organisms use chemical signals to communicate. These include bacteria, which are single cells. Many scientists agree that they are sentient, communicative, cooperative, decision-making, and therefore intelligent. Of course their “consciousness” is not comparable to ours, but David’s theory that 3.8 billion years ago his God preprogrammed every single bacterial response to every single new problem for the rest of time seems to me less likely than the (theistic) theory that his God gave them the intelligence to work out their own solutions. This would also apply to our own cell communities which at some time in the past cooperated to produce every individual organ in our bodies, and which continue (now mainly automatically) to cooperate in enabling those organs to function. (See also below.)

DAVID: And I reply it all can be automatic, based on instructions the organisms or cells carry.

Which, I repeat, means that 3.8 billion years ago your God provided the very first cells with programmes for every single development in the history of evolution, including every solution to every problem bacteria will ever face. Yes, it “can be” so – just as there “can be” an invisible teapot orbiting the sun (Bertrand Russell).

Under “Magic embryology: what guides cell development, placement?”

QUOTE: “The gene does not exist in a vacuum,” Saunders said. “And we’re realizing more and more that the mechanical environment in which those genes are operating matters” — including for decisions about cell fate."

DAVID: It is obvious embryonic cells are controlled by chemical and physical influences. but an overall body plan has to exist. Darwin does not explain the development of embryology in any of his theories. It is magical and strongly suggests that only design fits.

This article shows how embryology mirrors the whole process of evolution. Of course cells/cell communities respond to their environment, whether internal or external, and adjust accordingly. If they didn’t, they would not survive. I agree that only design fits, but every single species – which you and I believe descended from former species – has introduced new features, which means the embryo has inherited the innovations which the cell communities have newly designed (or in your theory were preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago). Yes, an overall body plan has to exist, but it also had to be invented in the first place, as each species either adjusted to or exploited the environment. I agree that once it has been established, the process has to work more or less automatically – just as factory workers must follow given procedures (though that does not mean they are automatons) – but the process itself was first introduced by the cell communities of the preceding organism, and that could not have been automatic because it deviated from its inheritance. Divinely preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago, the result of chance mutations, or the product of (possibly God-given) cellular intelligence?