Miscellany (General)

by David Turell , Wednesday, July 28, 2021, 19:18 (1004 days ago) @ dhw

T-cells

dhw: If organisms are designed to RESPOND to something new by making changes, as opposed to the changes being planned and made BEFORE the arrival of something new, it is obviously nonsense to say they have already been provided with the responses before the new situation arose! (See also "tomatoes" on the ID thread.)

DAVID: Go back and look at all the entries on the amazing immune system. we are born with general protections and are designed to learn about every invader with newly developed responses we create. We are designed for future problem's by making new answers de novo.

dhw: Thank you for this excellent summary of the process I have been describing. We are born with the protections already produced by our forebears, and we develop new responses to new threats. The only “design for future problems” is our ability to make new answers. That means the new answers are not preprogrammed or dabbled in advance – it is only the ability (i.e. intelligence) to provide new answers that is already provided (possibly by your God). At last you have cottoned on.

You are the cottoning one. Have you really recognized God's design for protection?

Immunity system complexity
"Scientists have long suspected that even cells that are not traditionally involved in the immune response have the rudimentary ability to remember prior insults and learn from experience.”

dhw: Yet more evidence of cellular intelligence. It may be rudimentary by comparison with our own, but it is efficient enough to do the jobs for which it is required.

Yes, from information God implanted in them.

Theistic evolution vs Darwinism [...]

DAVID: For Darwin and I the Cambrian is still out of thin air. The huge Chinese Ediacaran and Cambrian findings have simply made the gap sharper. Haven't you noticed what I present?

dhw: Of course I have. And it presents the same problem for you as for Darwin. You say you believe in common descent, but you also believe in separate creation. Darwin suggests that the fossil record is incomplete, and you suggest that your God changes his policy and creates species out of thin air. I support the theory that the fossil record is incomplete, and add that the other argument used by Creationists (not enough time for these new species to evolve) becomes irrelevant if we accept the theory of cellular intelligence (which plays no part in Darwin’s thinking).

Your invention of thinking cell committees solves your problem but is no answer for the issues of complex design and great gaps in the fossil record. All of all of us recognize the gaps. That is why China shale locations are such hot spots for searching. So far nothing in 30 years of looking has narrowed the gap. The Edicarans that have been found never shown any inkling of the Cambrian complex animals. The gaps are your wishful thinking avoiding God.