[josefx]

You can blame whoever invented the word "if", as soon as you can branch based on data you can just write an interpreter that turns data into instructions, no matter the architecture.

[anthk]

Or lambda. Or Forth commands. You can create an 'if' with few atoms.

[amelius]

You need more than if for Turing completeness though.

[thwarted]

You need conditionals and loops. Recursion counts as looping.

[alexdns]

Correct. You need at least 2 ifs.

[spooky_deep]

You need unbounded recursion no?

[dotancohen]

That's actually what two ifs could be.

[knollimar]

Was the case against the goto statement so good we can't mention it?

[dotancohen]

More or less, I meant how this would be inlined in assembly with a goto that could goto back where the branching originated from.