Miscellany (General)

by David Turell , Saturday, June 12, 2021, 15:52 (1051 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: You simply black out the rest of your bolded theory in your constant game of dodge, dodge, dodge.

Define dodging in a debate. I strongly feel I am answering honestly about my beliefs and theories.

Clear evidence of common descent
dhw: Common descent means that every life form (apart from the very first) is descended from a preceding life form. De novo creation means that life forms were created from scratch – i.e. without any precedent. Please clarify which of them you believe in.

DAVID: You can't split the problem. God's management of evolution creates a common descent as He manages the various developments from stage to stage. Your 'common descent' implies a natural chance process, and you have expressed much doubt about chance mutations as the cause...

dhw: More dodging. Once more: do you believe that every life form (apart from the first) is descended from a previous life form, or every life form was created from scratch (de novo)?

Many life forms are modifications of previous species: birds came from a branch of dinosaurs, and their design did not require a complete rewrite. I pose God as the rewriting engineer which gives us descent with modification. Frankly the only full de novo I know is the Cambrian explosion.

vagus nerve interoception
DAVID: Part of our conscious awareness is the way we sense our bodily functions primarily through the vagus nerve, one of 12 cranial nerves that connect directly to the brain for interpretation. We are the only organism that can make those interpretations.

dhw: Clearly the brains of rats also sense bodily functions through the vagus nerve. Neither you nor Tallon-Baudry have a clue how we come to be conscious of our brain’s ability to sense bodily functions!

Our God-given brain.

Ingenious research tricks

Using fluorescence to depict cells and their functions:

DAVID: Cell intelligence (dhw theory) can't create this. Only a highly-advanced designing mind can.

d hw: I’m not proposing that the cell’s intelligence created the way in which it functions! The research (vividly) reveals the mechanisms. It can’t reveal the intelligence that controls the mechanisms, any more than it can reveal your God’s 3.8-billion-year-old computer programme for all its transformations.

My same purpose: as we reveal the complexity of life's processes only a superior designing mind must exist.

Genome complexity
DAVID: Just how far this process is naturally used is not yet known. But re-writing DNA is shown to be possible. James Shapiro is applauding.

dhw: I don’t understand the technicalities, but if cells can rewrite their own DNA, I will join in the applause.

Thought you'd enjoy it.