Re: The wonders of science.

Steve Clark (ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu)
Tue, 07 Apr 1998 14:24:36 -0500

Juan refers to Paley's Watchmaker Hypothesis (or Paleyontology as I like to
refer to it). Juan's and Paley's points are well taken, but only address
some of the metaphysical claims that some people like to attach to evolution
but not the science of evolution itself. If we recognize design in a
complex structure, we make a metaphysical conclusion about the complexity of
the structure. Note that this says nothing about how the complex structure
was fabricated. On the other hand, evolution science concerns itself with
how living things were fabricated. In this sense, evolution is compatible
with a designer hypothesis since it, when kept in its proper context, only
addresses the mechanism by which life forms arose and not the purpose of
this event.

Stated differently, evolution only attempts to explain how complex forms
came into being. Evolution does not concern itself with metaphysical
questions of design.

At 09:32 PM 4/7/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I was just sitting here thinking, rare as the occasion is, and I came upon
>something that I thought I would share with you all.
>
>Science has this wonderful way of looking at things and distinguishing
>between the natural and the made. For example when an archeologist
>stumbles upon a rock he/she will go examine the rock in several ways and
>determine if the rock is just a plain old rock, or if it is an artifact of
>a distant civilization. Many times the conclusion is based on the fact
>that the rock has complexity that cannot be attributed to nature, this
>leads the archeologist to conclude that the rock was made by an intellegent
>person.
>
>I find it very odd that, while it is so evident to these scientists that
>the rock had a maker, they look at living things and basically attribute
>all of living nature to chance. The complexity of nature far excedes that
>of the rock on the ground yet this complexity came about by chance. This
>is one of the things that keeps me from embracing the theory of evolution
>in its entirety.
>
>Well I just thought that I would share that.
>
>Best Regards,
>
>J.D. Guzman
>
>
_________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D . Phone: 608/263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: 608/263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and Email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Center
CSC K4-432
600 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53792

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings to
search out a matter." Proverbs
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