The role of chance and contingency in life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, January 19, 2015, 20:15 (3595 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained


> Tony: And how is the determination being made about what is random? Is it truly random if a star explodes because of a series of progressive changes that were dictated by the very nature of its composition like a clock winding down? Is it random if the ejecta, traveling along a trajectory determined by the explosion of the star crashes in to planet Earth which is also traveling along a determined path?
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> Are any of these things ACTUALLY random, or do they only have the APPEARANCE of randomness because we do not have all the information?-With all the information about the course of the Earth and the ejecta, of course the intersection can be predicted. Without that information of course the collision is a surprise and looks random.
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> Tony: Random: made, done, happening, or chosen without method or conscious decision.
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> Nothing happens without a method. Nothing at all. Everything obeys rules. So, that leaves the question of, is consciousness, design, and/or intent the determining factor in randomness?
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> **Edit** I am assuming of course that you mean random chance and not simply the probability that something will occur.-Obviously, what I am looking at is the issue of teleology in evolution. That involves probability as follows: Random mutations do follow rules in the genome, but some of them are truly random in appearance. Mistakes in copying for example. They suddenly appear. Other mutations are the result of epigenetic effects and are not truly random. Specified complexity in biology requires more than contingent chance sequential events. Biology is not as strictly mechanistic as your cosmologic example. Thus the true importance of the consideration of randomness in Darwin theory. Gould said we are a glorious accident. I don't believe it.