Miscellany (General)

by David Turell @, Friday, February 26, 2021, 00:06 (1127 days ago) @ dhw

Extreme extremophiles

dhw: That is not what I meant. What was and is the purpose of organisms adapting and innovating?

DAVID: To make living easier.

dhw: “Easier”? All the home comforts? Please stop messing about with language. What do you mean here by “living” if not survival?

God made survival a sure thing for living organisms, a nuanced difference in thought


Dualism (Swinburne)

DAVID: The qualities of the material brain determines how the soul can work. He is only stating my statement you cannot seem to follow. Your soul can only work with the brain it must use. A senile brain produces senility, not the soul's fault. A soul free from a sick brain will think normally.

dhw: If your conscious life is affected by your sick brain, how can that mean “nothing that happens in my body [which includes the brain] entails or is entailed by what happens to my conscious life”?”

Of course a sick brain creates a sick consciousness while living. Freed of a sick brain, the soul returns to normal, as above


How algae find light

QUOTE: The question of how a cell makes these types of precise decisions can be a matter of life or death. It's quite a remarkable feat of both physics and biology, that a single cell with no nervous system to speak of is able to do this...It's an age-old mystery that my group is currently working hard to solve."

DAVID: it doesn't take intelligent analysis by the algae, just an intelligently designed built-in response system. I'm sure a little more molecular research will find it.

dhw: You are always sure that further research will confirm all your assumptions. Meanwhile, may I suggest that the “built-in response system” is actually a form of intelligence whereby all life forms “make these types of precise decisions”, as opposed to your God having had to programme every decision 3.8 billion years ago, or to keep popping in to deliver lessons or perform operations.

For once we agree, but only at the tiny level of minor adaptations


cetaceans get much less cancer

DAVID: These most unusual animals that obviously require the most designing might have this designed also. I wonder if this applies to manatees and other aquatic mammals.

dhw: And there was me thinking you thought we were the unusual animals that required the most designing. Don’t you think it’s a bit unfair that your God designed cetaceans to have built-in protection against cancer, and left us out, even though we were apparently his only goal in creating life?

God has reasons why He picks and chooses. He won't tell us why.


red light stimulates moth sex

DAVID: No explanation of why it is important:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2268874-moth-species-becomes-more-sexually-active-...

QUOTE: "An Asian-Australian moth becomes more sexually active under red light than under another colour of light or in the dark.”

dhw: I have a theory. The Asian-Australian moth is actually descended from European moths (American as well?) who frequent various districts in towns and cities in which certain buildings are dedicated to sexual activities frowned on by the authorities (many of whom nevertheless make use of them). The moths will subconsciously have associated the red light with the activity associated with the red light. I am applying for a research grant to investigate this extremely important evidence of causative links between human and insect behaviour, and I do hope you will support my application.

I will. :-) :-) :-) :-)


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