Evolution (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, March 20, 2009, 13:19 (5523 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by unknown, Friday, March 20, 2009, 13:25

I have posted a series of scientific dicoveries recently. Most of them described a new complexity in the processes that make organic matter living matter. This was to illustrate our understanding of just how very complex the processes are that create life from the single cell to the entire organism. The more complex, the more unlikely is the probability of chance, Darwin's mechanism. The following is an excerpt from a statistical article discussing the probabilities that chance created life: - "We call these [mutation] events accidental; we say that they are random occurrences. And since they constitute the only possible source of modifications in the genetic text, itself the sole repository of the organism's hereditary structures, it necessarily follows that chance alone is at the source of every innovation, of all creation in the biosphere. (Jacques Monod)[Ref 1] - Many in science employ a dogma that life is related to matter, rather than to mind. The dogma seems conceptually flawed. Unlike rocks, rivers, wind, rain and snow, life operates on information - tightly integrated messages that function to order a grand symphony of future events for clearly evident purposes. Lacking a mind, matter simply can't comprehend or order future events for a purpose. Because purpose only derives from mind, logic seems to demand that life is related to mind rather than just to matter. - Lacking a mind, material causes have only two tools to work with: (1) physical and chemical necessity flowing from the properties of matter, energy and the forces and (2) chance. As implied by Monod's statement, physical and chemical necessity are not tools used to order the symbol sequences that make life. Hence, the heavy lifting is left to chance by default. - The chance default is considered adequate because it is endowed with seemingly gargantuan resources consisting of billions of years of time and countless opportunity. The purpose manifested by life is only "apparent" and not objectively real because chance can explain it. For the materialist, the purpose apparent in the messages of life is just an illusion, like the illusion of a rising sun in the morning. - This article explains why Monod is wrong and the claim of chance fails. It fails because probability decreases exponentially at an accelerating rate as the complexity of a system increases only incrementally. Because of the phenomenal rate of reduction even billions and billions of years of time and opportunity are not adequate for chance to mimic the simplest functions of life." - What this final paragraph explains is the principle of stastistical probabilites that rules out chance as the mechanism of evolution. The more complex our discoveries the less likely that Darwin wins to argument. - The article concludes: "In summary, this vignette illustrates the inherent problem of attributing complex functional sequences to chance. As the complexity of the sequence increases, its chance probability decreases exponentially. Within finite realms, chance losses its plausibility with only small increases in complexity."