Causation

Causation

It was stated in print recently that bone marrow is now known to produce two and a half million new cells per second(!). Perhaps this is an average of, say, two million this second and three million the next second: either way, whether the count is averaged or constant, it prompts reflection.

Where is the counting taking place, in the body, that keeps the cell figure consistently at 2½ million/second? How is 2½ million of anything to be accurately counted each second, hour after hour, day after day? Even assuming that this volume is allotted according to mass, rather than number, is it the “brain” of the bone marrow which allots and monitors the needed mass? Does the cerebral cortex of the body attend to this particular detail?

In other words, is intelligent direction imposed on this phenomenon from “outside,” or is the intelligent direction “internal,” inherent to the phenomenon itself? One could say that the cells appear only when the conditions are right; but this would also suggest that the conditions are right only when the cells appear. Does the situation arise due to the presence of intelligence; or does intelligence arise simultaneously with any situation which it involves? Can intelligence be a “cause”? Is it “caused”?