Re: "God of the Gaps"

Garry DeWeese (deweese@ucsu.Colorado.EDU)
Tue, 12 Mar 1996 09:20:23 -0700 (MST)

On Mon, 11 Mar 1996, jeffery lynn mullins wrote:

> Garry,
>
> Indeed, if the SETI program were to obtain signals from other worlds that
> are conclusively from a personal intelligence, they would count if as a
> scientific discovery, and I don't think that the NSF would revoke their
> funds for publishing a result that is non-scientific. I see no problem
> with personal agency being used as an explanation in science, whether
> natural or supernatural, if that is the way the event happened and the
> evidence is obtained by objective evidence gathered by scientific means
> (which I think anthropology gives an example of).
>
> Jeff
>
Jeff,

The SETI example is a good one. Should meaningful signals be received,
the best explanation would be personal (agent causation). Is that
analagous to the high information content in genetic material so very
early in the history of life on earth?

Garry