In a message dated 11/10/01 10:06:48 AM, hvantill@novagate.com writes:
<< OK, thanks for the effort. Let's follow up on that. Suppose that God were
to
add a "new formational capability" to the Creation today at 1 p.m. Would
atoms, or molecules, or cells then be able to do things after 1 p.m. that
they were not able to do before? Would the observable/measurable properties
or behavior patterns of atoms, molecules, or cells be observed to change at
1 p.m.? Is this how new, more complex structures/systems arise? >>
Howard,
In your question you used an example that is so far afield from my view of
how God works that I can hardly respond to it. The idea of God adding new
informational capability to the creation at "1 pm today" *for no apparent
reason* does not fit in any way into my way of thinking. It makes me wonder
if you really understand or accept what I wrote about staged development of
creation. God does not act capriciously. As I wrote before, his adding new
informational capability occurred during transitions between stages of
creational development. Doing so is part of the plan of creation, not a spur
of the moment decision, or an emergency response to some failure or
inadequacy of creation.
So let's take your 1-PM-today scenario (give or take a few millions of
years) and place it sometime between the cooling of the earth and the
appearance of the first living cell, roughly 3.8 billion years ago. Then the
answer to your question is, yes, atoms, or molecules, or cells would then be
able to do things that they were not able to do before. C, H, O, N atoms
along with others, were able to do something new, i.e., become patterned into
living biological cells and do the work of living cells. This means they
were able to form a semi-permeable membrane around cell fluid (perhaps
Cambrian sea water), maintain the right pressure in the fluid to keep the
membrane from collapsing, build the internal skeleton of the cell,
manufacture food using various sources of energy. Formed into DNA and RNA
molecules they were able to synthesize proteins, specialized for various
tasks, transport them to exact addresses in other parts of the cell, and
remove waste products, repair damage--a veritable factory. The cell was able
to reproduce by dividing precisely into two identical daughter cells (an
amazing feat), capture energy, and perform work, all unbelievably complex
processes. Through it all the cell maintained itself far from equilibrium,
not true of any atoms or molecules before they received new formational
capacities.
I don’t need to run through all the myriad of other functions and processes
that the first living cell could do that these atoms were not capable of
doing before. Morowitz (1967) is reported to have suggested a minimum cell
with 45 biochemical functions and a diameter of 0.1 micrometers. Franklin
said that today both numbers would be larger today because we can discern
additional functions that are ubiquitous and logically required.
Whether all this happened by one second after i PM is doubtful. But whether
it happened in one second or several million years is not the point. Time is
not of the essence here.
As a theistic IDer, I hold that the first biological cell was irreducibly
complex, intelligently designed, and formed by as yet unknown means that
include the addition of new formational capabilities by divine action.
Bob
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