Creation Moment 7/10/2024 - Are Plants “Conscious”?

 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:12

"Most of us don’t think of plants as possessing intellect, considering they don’t have a central nervous system. According to new research, however, plants do possess a form of “intelligence”—but can we go as far as some researchers and say they are “conscious”?

Here’s the claim: according to one researcher, a tree called a mimosa “appears to ‘learn from experience’” when it comes to either folding or unfolding its leaves. He says this is “the most basic form of learning. . . . [and] is consistent with the idea that this plant has learned something as a result of experience, not from its genes.” He goes on to say that “other plants communicate with each other through chemicals, solve problems, and even appear to have memories,” and other researchers “speculated that plants may be able to count, make decisions, recognize their relatives and even remember events.” Now, this all may point to plants possessing a form of “intelligence,” but leaping to them possessing consciousness is, well, a huge leap!

Yes, God’s creation is unfathomably complex.

For example, mankind and the animals were given permission to eat plants—but not meat—in God’s “very good” creation, and plants are never described as nephesh life (a Hebrew term used for animals and people).

Now, the researcher interviewed in the article rejects the history of creation that God has given us in his Word, stating:

"If we can understand another form of intelligence that does not require brains, perhaps we can understand what unites us all in the tree of life. We need to find the master key."

But “another form of intelligence” has nothing to do with evolution

(how does one evolve “consciousness” or “intelligence” anyway?)—it just complicates the story by adding in even more complexity that evolution must explain. But in a Biblical worldview, we recognize everything was designed by an all-wise, all-powerful Creator." 

AIG