Paul Davies: new comments on Information and life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, March 22, 2020, 19:06 (1496 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: There are three factors in the debate: 1) passive, non-creative information; 2) the intelligence that uses it, either autonomously (cellular) or automatically (your God’s instructions); 3) the source of that intelligence (atheistic chance or your God). What do you think your different uses of the term “information” add to this?

DAVID: All I can say is ID touts the presence of all types of information very strongly. Descriptive information is a minor part of their argument. It is the information that shows life how to function and the information that allows translation of the instructions, for them strongly supports their idea that a designing mind exists. I don't see all three in your discussion above. We all agree it the information exists, no matter how it is defined or described. It is your constant disturbance over it that surprises me.

dhw: I’m glad you’ve now dropped your claim that Shedinger uses the information argument in his excellent article. So let’s look at the current state of your argument. We now have descriptive or passive information, information that shows life how to function, and information that allows translation of the instructions…..Hold on, I thought the instructions were what you called “instructional” or “operative information”, so what do you call the information that translates “instructional” or “operative information”, and what does this translate the instructional information into? Ah, was that the “biological” information you mentioned the other day, or was biological information the complete collection of descriptive or passive information, instructional or operative information, and unnamed information that translates the operative information into biological information? I’m surprised that you are surprised that I find all this disturbing. And how do all these forms of information support the idea that a designing mind exists? Wouldn’t you say the complexity of living organisms makes for clearer evidence that a designing mind exists? Now please tell me what is missing from the list of three factors I have compiled above.

I see you recognize the varying aspects of the information life contains, no matter how they are given descriptive terms. For life to emerge as life, many millions of amino acid molecules make huge protein molecules which run coordinated reactions, so all the reactions work in concert with each other. The largest molecules of all are the enzymes, many many, many thousand amino acids put together with areas that hold two different molecules in close proximity to force them to react making a new protein product. Without the enzymes a reaction could take thousands of years, instead of milliseconds. All of this, the manufacture of the proteins, the reactions themselves and the coordination of all reactions is the result of instructions. Only a designing mind can provide this.