A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE?

[El_Jibaro]

[i][b]A New Kind of Science?: Stephen Wolfram's Challenge to Natural Selection

After earning a Ph.D. from Caltech at age 20, Stephen Wolfram founded the corporation that produces MATHEMATICA, the world's leading technical mathematics software.

For nearly ten years, Wolfram has -- by his own description -- been "an almost complete recluse." Wolfram became a recluse because he wanted to spend time thinking about a problem that science had failed completely to explain: the origin of complexity -- the vastly intricate systems, especially in biology, which so excite our curiosity.

Now Wolfram thinks he's found the answer to this puzzle, and he's published it in an encyclopedic book, A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE. Almost overnight, A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE shot to the top and stayed at the top of the Amazon.com rankings.

Wolfram is convinced that it's only a matter of time before the rest of the scientific community grasps that the puzzle of complexity requires an entirely new approach. And this is especially the case, Wolfram argues, in biology.

Ask nearly any evolutionary biologist what assembled the human eye, or the three billion base pairs of DNA in our genome, and that biologist will answer, "Natural selection, of course."

But Wolfram is not entirely persuaded by this answer. "No clear understanding has ever emerged," he writes, "of just why such processes should in the end actually lead to much complexity at all." After twenty years of studying the problem, Wolfram no longer views natural selection as a wonder-working process. "I have increasingly come to believe," he argues, "that in fact its power is remarkably limited."

Does this mean that Wolfram accepts the theory of intelligent design? No -- not yet anyway. Although he writes, "Just how complexity arises was never really resolved" by Darwinian evolution, and "I have come to have some sympathy for the creationists," Wolfram thinks all the complexity in nature will arise naturally from simple rules. He illustrates this by "cellular automata," pattern-generating systems that churn out complexity from a handful of rules. Because cellular automata can make complex patterns, Wolfram thinks he's solved the complexity puzzle.

But other scientists are skeptical. Scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, for example, points out that we aren't interested in complexity simply as complexity. The exact pattern of jellybeans in a bag of candy is exceedingly complex, but no one really cares to explain it. We do want to explain what design theorist Bill Dembski calls "the specified complex patterns" -- the patterns that do things.

On that score, Kurzweil argues, Wolfram's cellular automata fall short. "They do not evolve," he says, into "insects, or humans, or Chopin preludes, or anything else that we might consider of a higher order of complexity." Wolfram's cellular automata, Kurzweil concludes, "are not capable of solving interesting problems." To do that, Dembski and other design theorists argue, intelligence is absolutely necessary.

The book, A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE, starts with an important problem: Science has not explained the origin of biological complexity. Wolfram's solution may fall short, but at least this brilliant man acknowledges the immensity of the puzzle. And in time, he may join others in seeing that intelligent design means an intelligent Designer.


Additional reading and resources:

Stephen Wolfram, A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE (Champaign, IL: Wolfram Media, 2002). < http://www.wolframscience.com >

William Dembski, SIGNS OF INTELLIGENCE: UNDERSTANDING INTELLIGENT DESIGN (Brazos Press, 2001).
< http://www.parable.com/breakpoint/it...sku=1587430045 >

Raymond Kurzweil's review of A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE, available at:
< http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/a...ml?printable=1 >

"Is this man bigger than Newton and Darwin?" TELEGRAPH (UK), 15 May 2002.
< http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected.../15/ixconn.htm >

[El_Jibaro]

[i]SCIENCE AND STAR POWER: STEPHEN JAY GOULD


In 300 consecutive columns in NATURAL HISTORY magazine, Harvard professor Stephen Jay Gould pondered questions like whether the zebra is black with white stripes or white with black stripes, and why .400 hitters have become extinct. From diverse starting points, he always arrived at the same conclusion: Everything that exists evolved by natural processes. Nature created itself.

His column title, "This View of Life," came from the closing sentence of Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES: "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; . . . from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." In essence, "This view of life" was his "life verse."

Gould recognized that the fossil record has major gaps . But instead of letting that observation persuade him to abandon evolution, he modified the theory . He explained the lack of transitional fossils by postulating what he called "punctuated equilibrium." The ordinary state of nature is a steady equilibrium, but, he speculated, this was "punctuated" by creative spurts too rapid to leave fossil evidence -- an interesting attempt to cover one of Darwin's flaws .

In Gould's view of life, even human intelligence must have originated naturally. He once told PBS, "The main reason for considering intelligence accidental is pretty clear. It's only evolved in one species after four and one-half billion years of the history of the Earth, which is about half the Earth's potential history if the sun's due to explode in five billion years or so." That makes it an open-and-shut case: A random process did it. The idea that a Supreme Being may have gifted homo sapiens with His extraordinary intellect is rejected out-of-hand.

When the oncologist told him he was terminal, Gould told readers he would not take refuge in religion. He opined that acknowledging God's existence between the lines of nature was "raw hope all gussied up as science."

What made Stephen Jay Gould so popular with the media? Partly a flair for picturesque expression -- what one analyst called "beautifully written speculations based on data which don't support the speculation as well as they might . . . a triumph of form over content."

But my friend Phillip Johnson thinks the primary reason for Gould's popularity was his worldview. Referring to the ideological "high priests" who decree what is and is not acceptable in the scientific and educational establishments and media, Johnson commented, "Whatever his merits, Gould is a popularizer. He never made a scientific discovery and eventually abandoned his [own] research. But from the adulation [he received], you would think he ranked with Darwin, Einstein, and Newton. Why? Because the first priority of the mandarins is to finish removing God from reality."

Gould's last two books hit the bookstores earlier this year. Like his earlier output, they contain interesting information and colorful analogies. But if your friends read them, explain to them that his naturalism and his Marxism seasoned everything he wrote as he relentlessly promoted what he called "this view of life"[b] -- even when, as with the gaps in the fossil record , the facts got in the way .


For further information:

Phillip E. Johnson, DARWIN ON TRIAL (InterVarsity Press, 1993). < http://www.pfmonline.net/products.ta...ion=d&IC=BKWAI >

BreakPoint commentary no. 020314, "What Would Darwin Say?"
< http://www.breakpoint.org/Breakpoint...Darwin+Say.htm >

BreakPoint commentary no. 02050, "Big Mysteries, Tiny Organisms."
< http://www.breakpoint.org/Breakpoint...+Organisms.htm >

The "Icons of Evolution" video focuses on the incorrect assumptions and data used by Darwin and the scientific facts that refute them. < http://www.pfmonline.net/products.ta...tem_Code=VCIOE >

Visit the Origins website for more information on evolution, intelligent design, and related issues: < http://www.origins.org >

Carol Kaesuk Yoon, "Stephen Jay Gould, Biologist and Theorist of Evolution, Dies at 60," NEW YORK TIMES, 21 May 2002.
< http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/20/ob...CND-GOULD.html >

Charles Osgood, "The Osgood File" feature about Gould (three sections down), WCBS news radio, 21 May 2002.
< http://wcbs880.com/osgood/StoryFolde...214037524_html >

John Wilson, "Death of an Evolutionist," BOOKS & CULTURE, 28 May 2002.
< http://www.christianitytoday.com/boo...er/020528.html >

David Berlinksi, "Stephen Jay Gould, 1942-2002: In Memoriam," Discovery Institute, 29 May 2002.
< http://www.discovery.org/news/stephe...nMemoriam.html >

[El_Jibaro]

[b][i]THE MALIBU ANTIDOTE: CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE AT THE BEACH


How often has someone told you science has poked holes in the Bible's credibility? Or science has proven God doesn't exist? How do you answer a skeptical friend who's been conned by these clichés? Troubling, isn't it?

I have a perfect antidote for you: a trip to Malibu this summer! Malibu is the home of Pepperdine University, where from August 2-5 the American Scientific Affiliation, or ASA, will host a conference that will present a roster of outstanding scientists -- including a Nobel laureate. And all of them are outspoken Christians!

At the conference, titled "Christian Pioneers in Science," presenters will explore the scientific and biblical beliefs of notables, including Blaise Pascal, James Clerk Maxwell -- and a British quantum chemist named Charles Coulson, who spells his name differently and is no relation.

Nobel laureate and physicist Dr. Charles Townes, the man who invented the maser and co-invented the laser, will give the opening keynote address. In contrast to the popular phrase "the conflict between science and religion," Dr. Townes plans to speak on, "The Convergence of Science and Religion." Expect to hear him debunk the popular misconception that science is totally objective, and religion is totally subjective. "[F]aith," he has written, "is usually taken as a characteristic of religion, . . . But faith is essential to science too, . . . Faith is necessary for the scientist to even get started, and deep faith necessary for him to carry out his tougher tasks."

Faith is needed, says Dr. Townes, because a scientist "must be personally committed to the belief that there is order in the universe and that the human mind . . . has a good chance of understanding this order . . . [This faith] has made possible our scientific progress."

Concepts like that could add zest to your next discussion with your agnostic friends. Elsewhere Dr. Townes writes, "Nature is . . . so obviously God-made." Study more of what this Nobel physicist says about God, and you'll be better equipped to defend your faith against the skeptics and critics.

Another favorite myth that the ASA conference will address is the Galileo affair -- allegedly Exhibit A in the folkloric myth that religious beliefs retard scientific discovery. Dr. Owen Gingerich, senior astronomer emeritus at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, has assembled evidence showing clearly that many secular scientists of the day resisted Galileo and that the church outside Italy -- where Galileo had made many enemies -- offered no opposition at all to his theories. The idea that it was the Church that was anti-science can be debunked.

If you're a scientist or have an interest in issues of science, visit the American Scientific Affiliation website, http://www.asa3.org. The site contains a wealth of information on science and the Christian faith. You can also find more information about the August annual meeting where Dr. Townes, Dr. Gingerich, and others will be speaking. Mention on your registration that you're replying as a result of this BreakPoint broadcast, and you'll qualify for the "early registration discount."

Whether you surf this website or go to the conference next to the Malibu surf, you'll learn what I've been saying for years: There are solid Christian rebuttals to those agnostic clichés.


For further information:

[Note: Be sure to copy and paste the entire web address between carats
< > into your web browser to access the following links.]

Learn about the American Scientific Affiliation here:
< http://www.asa3.org >.

Registration information for the August 2-5, 2002, conference is located here:
< http://www.asa3.org/ASA/meetings/Pep...egBrochure.pdf > (requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader < http://www.adobe.com >) You may also call 978-356-5656, or fax 978-356-4375; e-mail asa@asa3.org; or mail: P.O. Box 668, Ipswich, MA 01938-0668.

Charles H. Townes, MAKING WAVES (Woodbury, NY: AIP Press, American Institute of Physics, 1997). See especially the last five chapters-the section entitled "Spiritual Views from a Scientific Base."
< http://www.springer-ny.com/detail.tp...SBN=1563963345 >

E. C. Barrett and David Fisher, SCIENTISTS WHO BELIEVE: 21 TELL THEIR OWN STORIES (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984).
< http://www.parable.com/breakpoint/it...sku=0802476341 >

Harry Kreisler, "Adventures of a Scientist," video interview with Dr. Charles H. Townes, Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley, 15 February 2000.
< http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/peo...wnes-con0.html >

Dan Falk, "Harvard Professor Owen Gingerich Sees Religious Roots of Astronomy," Space.com, 22 September 2000.
< http://www.space.com/php/reference/c...le_000921.html >

Learn more about Blaise Pascal here:
< http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~his...ns/Pascal.html >,
and James Clerk Maxwell here:
< http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~his...s/Maxwell.html >.

[El_Jibaro]

[b][i]CONSIDERING THE EVIDENCE: INTELLIGENT DESIGN IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY


One of the most controversial and stimulating ideas to surface in scientific circles in the last twenty years has been the idea that the universe shows evidence of having been designed. And perhaps the most remarkable thing about the idea is that even those who oppose intelligent design no longer can dismiss it outright, as was the case just decades ago. They have been forced to take it seriously.

In DESIGNER UNIVERSE: INTELLIGENT DESIGN AND THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, Jimmy Davis and Henry Poe examine why the idea of intelligent design has re-emerged as a serious philosophical understanding of the origin of the universe after it had been buried by Darwinian naturalism for over a hundred years. Davis, a professor of chemistry, and Poe, the first appointee to the Charles Colson Chair of Faith and Culture, both teach at Union University. This book demonstrates why Union has developed such a strong academic reputation in recent years.

DESIGNER UNIVERSE describes how advances in scientific knowledge during the twentieth century have raised new questions. There once was a time when materialistic naturalism seemed to answer all the questions about the universe -- but no longer. Now consider just a few of these new ideas that Poe and Davis explore in DESIGNER UNIVERSE.

Until the twentieth century, western science accepted the teaching of Aristotle that the universe had always existed. But in the light of the evidence of the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe, more and more cosmologists are concluding that the universe must have had some original beginning. Design had no place in an eternal universe, but if the universe has a beginning, that opens the door for the inevitable question of where it came from and what (or Who) began it.

Many have attempted to dodge this conclusion with the notion of infinite regress. Since the time of the great Enlightenment skeptic, David Hume, naturalists argued that the universe doesn't need a first cause. Instead, they said, the universe is explained by an infinite series of finite events -- which, on its face, is a preposterous concept. But an expanding universe with a beginning doesn't allow for an infinite regress. If the universe had a beginning, it had a first cause.

Finally, scientists for a long time assumed there was nothing particularly significant about our little planet. Here we are in a backwater spot in an ordinary galaxy. And they concluded life probably exists on as many as 100 billion planets. But by the 1990s, scientists began to realize how unique the earth really is and how many complex factors had to be absolutely fine tuned for life to appear. This is called the anthropic principle. If earth were a bit closer to the sun, water would boil away -- life would be impossible. Or if it were a little further away, it would be too cold for life -- everything would freeze over. Similarly, if gravity were slightly greater than it is, the earth would implode -- and so forth. This fine tuning didn't happen by accident, but must have occurred under the watchful eye of a Designer.

Intelligent design is being taken seriously and provides a powerful apologetic. When we raise these kinds of issues, any honest scientist or skeptic has to say, "I've got to look at the evidence." For a good overview of that evidence for intelligent design, DESIGNER UNIVERSE is a readable and worthwhile introduction.


For further information:

[To access the following links, be sure to copy and paste the entire web address between carats < > into your web browser.]

Jimmy H. Davis and Henry L. Poe, DESIGNER UNIVERSE: INTELLIGENT DESIGN AND THE EXISTENCE OF GOD (Broadman & Holman, 2002).
< http://www.pfmonline.net/products.ta...ion=d&IC=BKDSU >

William Dembski, "Skepticism's Prospects for Unseating Intelligent Design," BREAKPOINT ONLINE, 24 June 2002. (Talk delivered at CSICOP's Fourth World Skeptics Conference in Burbank, California, on 21 June 2002.)
< http://www.breakpoint.org/Breakpoint...ent+Design.htm >

Roberto Rivera , "Gods and Peanuts," BREAKPOINT ONLINE, 22 May 2002.
< http://www.breakpoint.org/Breakpoint...nd+Peanuts.htm >

Learn more about intelligent design by visiting the Discovery Institute's website < http://www.discovery.org >.

The Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center (IDEA) fosters conversation about intelligent design among students, educators, and other interested parties. < http://www.ideacenter.org >

On August 2-5, 2002, the American Scientific Affiliation
< http://www.asa3.org > is holding a conference at Pepperdine University, titled "Christian Pioneers in Science," on the roles of faith and science. Registration is available here: < http://www.asa3.org/ASA/meetings/Pep...egBrochure.pdf >
(requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader < http://www.adobe.com >).

You may also call 978-356-5656, or fax 978-356-4375; e-mail asa@asa3.org; or mail: P.O. Box 668, Ipswich, MA 01938-0668.

[El_Jibaro]

[b][i]FINGERPRINTS OF A DESIGNER: THE QUESTION OF ORIGINS


"Design," write Union University professors, Dr. Jimmy Davis and Dr. Harry Poe, "has generally been regarded as a code word for Christianity, though . . . it is one of those rare features of faith common to virtually all religions."

Davis and Poe make a great team of writers on the intelligent design of the universe. Poe, a theologian and the first Charles Colson Professor of Faith and Culture at Union, examines how philosophers and religions have recognized the design features of the world from ancient times and helps the reader understand how worldview has often been an important, if unrecognized, influence in scientific inquiry.

Davis, professor of chemistry and associate provost of Union, guides the reader through the complexities of cosmology, math, physics, chemistry, and biology, pointing out the difference between actual science and the worldview behind the science.

They begin with religion and philosophy, showing that design arguments for the existence of God go back at least as far as Plato in Western thought and are common throughout the world. Design arguments, however, fell out of favor after Darwin offered a naturalistic explanation for the variety of living things. But in the last decade, the old argument has gained new life in what is being called today intelligent design.

Davis and Poe go on to show how intelligent design is based on the implications of recent scientific discoveries and has arisen among scientists working in a number of fields. There are evidences of design throughout creation. Davis and Poe examine topics from the atomic structure of carbon to the shape of birds' beaks and from pollination to DNA. They point out the irreducible complexity and sheer beauty of all creation.

My favorite example of theirs is water. The water that's everywhere has a unique molecule and unexpected characteristics. Using chemistry principles, they point out, we would expect water to be a gas at room temperature, not a liquid. We would expect ice to sink rather than float. And we would expect water to be toxic and/or corrosive.

If water followed the trends of similar chemicals, life on earth would be impossible. If water were a gas at room temperature, the atmosphere would be too dense. If ice didn't float, aquatic life would die in the winter. And if water were toxic, earth would be a wasteland. Does that prove intelligent design? No, but the uniqueness of water is just one indication of a world carefully balanced to sustain life.

Most Christians are not in a position to appreciate the research on which intelligent design is based. As a result, we tend to cave in as soon as someone with scientific credentials speaks to the issue. And we don't recognize that there always comes a point where the scientist stops talking about science and starts talking about philosophy or theology. Our job is to see where his basic presuppositions kick in.

Davis and Poe make a great case, explaining why increasing numbers of scientists believe in intelligent design. Their book, DESIGNER UNIVERSE, will definitely stretch your thinking. But with a topic so central to biblical worldview and so many issues facing our culture, the stretch will do you -- and the neighbors you talk to -- good.


For further information:

Jimmy H. Davis and Harry L. Poe, DESIGNER UNIVERSE: INTELLIGENT DESIGN AND THE EXISTENCE OF GOD (Broadman & Holman, 2002).
< http://www.pfmonline.net/products.ta...ion=d&IC=BKDSU >

Learn more about intelligent design by visiting the Discovery Institute's website.
< http://www.discovery.org >

The Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center (IDEA) fosters conversation about intelligent design among students, educators, and other interested parties.
< http://www.ideacenter.org >

On August 2-5, 2002, the American Scientific Affiliation
< http://www.asa3.org > is holding a conference at Pepperdine University, titled "Christian Pioneers in Science," on the roles of faith and science. Registration is available here:
< http://www.asa3.org/ASA/meetings/Pep...egBrochure.pdf > (requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader < http://www.adobe.com >). You may also call 978-356-5656, or fax 978-356-4375; e-mail asa@asa3.org;
or mail: P.O. Box 668, Ipswich, MA 01938-0668.

[yautiawoman2]

[quote]Originally posted by El_Jibaro
[b][b][i]FINGERPRINTS OF A DESIGNER: THE QUESTION OF ORIGINS
________________________________________________________

Before you post $hit like this, why don't you learn
to read for meaning, obviously you dont know the
difference between your eye or your elbow!

(Reading and Writing) That comes in the Third
Chapter teaching you how to coordinate between your
eye and your brain....but then you are not ready
for that lesson!

From Understanding Reading and Learning to read by
bipassing hooked on phonics.

Limiting your information (throw away that jodia pecosa)
Learning to Read implications as in Paramilitaries in
Columbian Amazon Jungles and Death Squads in Guatemala
(see the New York Times re. la masacre del Aguacate since
you have failed to see the connections jibs brutos pendages!)

Maybe you suufferrrr from a reading disability, eso es un
"learning disability" and maybe you qualify for a check
from "Uncle Tom", (was not ref. to Military general from the caribbean) I mean "Uncle Sam" since you is an
ADA Adult and they failed to identify you when you were
just a gleem in your mama's eye! (I mean a fetus in your
mother's womb) I mean, you really do quality for IDEA, you
know, you too can get food stamps and a disability check!

Maybe you need some lessons on LD and that is why you are
hooked on phonics and need to understand reading, es o no
es cierto, mi(s) chulo(s)?

Ranting on while waiting for the political forum to start!

La Yautia