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How Nature Builds Things

How does nature construct things differently than how humans construct things?

Growth​

Nature (or God, or the universe) always starts with something small which then grows into its final form. Consider a tree, it starts will a little seed, which sprouts a few leaves. Those leaves start working as a tree, collecting energy, adding a few leaves here and then. The tree grows by itself adding branches.

Consider a valley cut on the side of a mountain. Water from rain starts with tiny rivulets across the mountainside. Some of those get a bit larger than the others, and so the water from the side rivulet start to flow into the bigger ones. The moving water starts to carry away material, more in the places were water is running fastest, causing more water to be concentrated. As a valley starts to be cut, the shape of the valley CAUSES more water to concentrate, which in turn cuts a deeper valley causing more water to collect, etc.

Consider any animal: it starts as a single cell, quickly to be a ball of identical cells, and the number of cells keep growing. The shape begins to fold and specialize. It is an amazing process where everything grows from identical cells slowly into differentiated structures.

Consider a storm. It does not suddenly just appear, but it starts as a small swirling of air. That swirling involves more air, which is driven by evaporation, and made to swirl in a strong form, which collects more air into it. It grows incrementally from a very small disturbance into a very large storm

Autopoesis​

There is actually a good word for this pattern of creation: "autopoesis" which describes a form which can grow. The small version of a tree is "the same" as the large version of the tree in some way (the basic functions of the tree are the same when small and when large). Autopoesis is the necessary design for something to grow from small to large BY ITSELF.

More examples of forms that are assembled and grow by autopoesis:

  • stars form on their own
  • galaxies grow on their own
  • sand dunes self organize
  • crystals start small and grow
  • water waves start small and grow
  • ripples in the sand grow in the same way

Order / Disorder Interplay​

The shapers bringing about increase in order do not operate independently of the universe around it. Quite often one shaper is also causes a destruction of other kinds of order.

Volcanoes are a process of increasing order, taking liquid within the earth and piling it up into a mountain and that mountain has a definite shape. While doing this, they might destroy whole forests, or block a river that was flowing down a valley.

A hurricane is a orderly bit of atmosphere, structured in a complex interaction with a very specific shape that did not exist before the hurricane formed. The hurricane is ephemeral and does not leave behind any lasting order. While the hurricane is operating, it might destroy a lot of other things, such as forests, habitats, or human built buildings.

Notice the interplay between order and destruction: one shaper becoming more organized can destroy the order of another kind of shaper. Disease certainly increases the number of the microbes causing the disease, but at the same time interrupts order of a different kind. Killing of a living thing is an act of disorder.

It is a childish thought that any of this ordering is "pure" or "perfect" and that it occurs without any disorder happening at the same time. Order "blossoms" in many different ways, and the increase in order from one shaper might easily cause decrease in other kinds of shapers.

Humans Manufacture Differently​

There is nothing manufactured by humans that use this pattern. All the things around us have parts manufactured in their final form, and then assembled. Cars, washing machines, sinks, televisions, radios, bicycles, artwork, paintings, statues, buildings, cooked food, tables, chairs, barbie dolls, airplanes, etc. The parts are designed to do a particular thing, manufactured, and then assembled.

Evolution​

Evolution is a process that uses the same principles: start with a very simple form, and grow, while all parts are growing at the same time. Successive generations incorporate small changes across the entire body. Some changes work and are reproduces, while other are harmful and die out. This process of creation is going on around us all the time. New viruses appear as mutations of the old form of virus. As you look at the fossil record, we see things like the "jaw" invented in animals, and passed down. The jaw does not start out as a final form, but instead starts are a really basic chewing mechanism and grows to be elaborate mechanism later in the tree of life.

It is never the case one day no jaw, and the next day a fully formed jaw. Evolution does not work by creating fully formed part and then assembling the final animals.

Apologist Disinformation​

Christian apologists like to confuse good people by posing questions as if animals were created the way humans do. Question like "what good is an optic nerve without an eye." It is a silly question. The eye started as a very slight ability to register light, a very primitive retina along with a very primitive optic nerve. The retina and the optic nerve, as well as all the other parts of an eye evolved into existence simultaneously. By purposefully asking the question as if the optic nerve was designed and assembled to a designed retina confuses people making evolution appear harder than it really is.