http://home.wxs.nl/~gkorthof/kortho44.htm
Some excerpts
nformation of more than 500 bits is designed
Dembski defines Complex Specified Information, CSI, as "any
specified information whose complexity exceeds
500 bits of information" (p166). Chance cannot generate CSI. However he
didn't translate that into a concrete DNA
sequence length. I did not find it in his book. If he consulted Yockey
(11) he would have noticed that the
cytochrome-c family of genes has an information content of 233 - 373
bits. This is lower than 500 bits. So although
cytochrome-c undoubtedly contains information, it does not classify as
CSI. So cytochrome-c is not an example of
design and could be generated by chance according to Dembski's
criterion. This is a rather unexpected result.
Law of Conservation of Information
Biologists don't know all the details of the solution of the first question:
the origin of life. The simplest free-living
organism, Mycoplasma genitalium, has 468 genes. This would exceed
Dembski's boundary of 500 bits, I guess.
Could this evolve gradually? We need data and experiments. Although
Dembski tries to escape a positive answer
to the second question, he finds himself saying: "selection introduces
new information" (p177). Dembski also seems
to accept that information can flow from the environment to an
organism, thereby increasing the organism's
information content. Both statements contradict his main thesis that
natural processes cannot generate Complex
Specified Information. On other pages he is so attached to the Law of
Conservation of Information ('Only Information
begets Information', p183) and the belief that CSI cannot be generated
by natural processes, that he is forced to
believe that CSI existed before the origin of life: CSI could be
'abundant in the universe' and 'CSI is inherent in a
lifeless universe'.
[...]
I think Dembski must agree with Davies' claim: "Random mutations plus
natural selection are one surefire way to
generate biological information, extending a short random genome over
time into a long random genome." [3,
p120]. Dembski must accept that genes like cytochrome-c can be produced
by mutation and natural selection,
because they are smaller than 500 bits.
If selection can do this: what are the limits?
False positive
The Fibonacci series is a sequence of numbers where each number is the sum
of the two previous numbers:
1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,... It is called after the thirteenth-century
Florentine mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci who first
defined it.
A surprising fact is that the Fibonacci series can be
found in the arrangement of leaves on the
stem of higher plants. In the great majority of
plants with spiral arrangement, the arrangement
conforms to Fibonacci numbers [6]. Now this looks a
perfect case of design [10]. Is it indeed a
case of design according to Dembski's Explanatory
Filter? Is it a contingent system? The
Fibonacci spiral pattern is not the only one present
in the plant kingdom. There are other
patterns. So there is no necessity. Is it a complex
system? It is as complex and as non-random
as Dembski's pattern D of binary numbers on page 137.
Is it a specified system? A specified
pattern needs to be independent of the event. The
Fibonacci sequence is independent of the
pattern of leaves, because it is 100% determined by the mathematical
rules defined by Fibonacci. Is side
information involved? Of course: knowledge of the Fibonacci sequence
functions as side information and thereby
renders the Fibonacci sequence a specification. That side information
enables us to construct the Fibonacci
pattern to which the leave pattern conforms, without recourse to the
actual observation. So we have here Complex
Specified Information and so Dembski is forced to conclude intelligent
design. But the arrangement of leaves on the
stem of a plant is a perfectly natural process, as was shown for
example by a simple physical model [6,p115]. So
the Fibonacci pattern of leaves is not intelligently caused and is a
false positive for Dembski's design criterion.
Thereby making the Explanatory Filter an unreliable criterion for
design.
Check out his other excellent commentaries
http://home.wxs.nl/~gkorthof/
Review of Behe
http://home.wxs.nl/~gkorthof/korthof8.htm
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