Design or Luck?
Precision Science limits speculation
A precision science obtains agreement within one percent or better between its theoretical predictions and experimental or observational confirmations. The only precision sciences at present, physics and chemistry, have confirmed the Bible. The remaining conflicts the Bible has are with the (as yet) imprecise sciences: biology, geology, and anthropology among others. The lack of precision in these sciences has permitted gross extrapolation and wild speculation. It is too soon to tell if these extrapolations and speculations have any scientific merits. As biology, geology, and anthropology achieve precision we can evaluate any surviving ideas that now seem to conflict with the Bible.
Meanwhile, precision science has much to say to the imprecise sciences. It imposes strong limits for the speculations of evolutionism that have arisen after the publications of Charles Robert Darwin (British naturalist, 1809–1882).. We will examine these limits in this part of the Origins Quest series.
Precision science may likewise force geologists to revise the dates they previously based on fossils. The old evolutionary sequence from one-celled organisms to humankind was never more than a mere consensus about which organisms led to others. A new, radically different sequence is arising from gene comparison.
The new precision of cosmology has already dashed many hopes for finding extraterrestrial life, especially extraterrestrial intelligence.[i]
In rejecting the global extent of Noah’s Flood, geologists some centuries ago insisted that only slow, gradual changes have shaped the Earth. Ironically, astrobiology now affirms that global catastrophes like asteroid impacts caused the destruction of many species and opened up habitats for various other organisms on Earth. That is, evidence from physics and astronomy now favors a return to the catastrophic theories people denied when they rejected the Bible.
We will examine the limitations that thermodynamics and information theory impose on evolutionism. These precision sciences favor the alternative hypothesis of divine creative design that endowed some creatures with the ability to adapt to present adverse conditions.
[i] Ward, Peter D. and Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe (New York: Copernicus Books), Springer-Verlag 2003.
Creative Design
Exploring planets, asteroids, and comets farther and farther away in the depths of space requires aerospace engineers to design space probes and exploration robots creatively. Unforeseeable conditions may need a timely response before space equipment can send information to its Earth-bound controllers and receive commands from them. Designers especially want to provide their systems with artificial intelligence. With that, space equipment can adapt its behavior, overcome crises, and continue exploring.
When life first appeared on Earth it lacked a central nervous system that could mediate intelligence. Our intelligence is a great step above the life of plants or bacteria, but their life is also a great step above lifeless chemical compounds, however complex. Creative design can leap over high barriers, but did life take an easier way? Did our life begin and develop on its own? Our quest will apply precision science to evaluate critically modern conjectures about adaptive processes that don’t depend on outside intelligence.
Many species are well adapted to their environment. Some of the adaptations look like creative designs. Many scientists believe that the designer is God. But Darwin had a different idea.
Meanwhile, precision science has much to say to the imprecise sciences. It imposes strong limits for the speculations of evolutionism that have arisen after the publications of Charles Robert Darwin (British naturalist, 1809–1882).. We will examine these limits in this part of the Origins Quest series.
Precision science may likewise force geologists to revise the dates they previously based on fossils. The old evolutionary sequence from one-celled organisms to humankind was never more than a mere consensus about which organisms led to others. A new, radically different sequence is arising from gene comparison.
The new precision of cosmology has already dashed many hopes for finding extraterrestrial life, especially extraterrestrial intelligence.[i]
In rejecting the global extent of Noah’s Flood, geologists some centuries ago insisted that only slow, gradual changes have shaped the Earth. Ironically, astrobiology now affirms that global catastrophes like asteroid impacts caused the destruction of many species and opened up habitats for various other organisms on Earth. That is, evidence from physics and astronomy now favors a return to the catastrophic theories people denied when they rejected the Bible.
We will examine the limitations that thermodynamics and information theory impose on evolutionism. These precision sciences favor the alternative hypothesis of divine creative design that endowed some creatures with the ability to adapt to present adverse conditions.
[i] Ward, Peter D. and Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe (New York: Copernicus Books), Springer-Verlag 2003.
Creative Design
Exploring planets, asteroids, and comets farther and farther away in the depths of space requires aerospace engineers to design space probes and exploration robots creatively. Unforeseeable conditions may need a timely response before space equipment can send information to its Earth-bound controllers and receive commands from them. Designers especially want to provide their systems with artificial intelligence. With that, space equipment can adapt its behavior, overcome crises, and continue exploring.
When life first appeared on Earth it lacked a central nervous system that could mediate intelligence. Our intelligence is a great step above the life of plants or bacteria, but their life is also a great step above lifeless chemical compounds, however complex. Creative design can leap over high barriers, but did life take an easier way? Did our life begin and develop on its own? Our quest will apply precision science to evaluate critically modern conjectures about adaptive processes that don’t depend on outside intelligence.
Many species are well adapted to their environment. Some of the adaptations look like creative designs. Many scientists believe that the designer is God. But Darwin had a different idea.