The "Fingerprint of God" is by Hugh Ross. I have the book, but I forget the
publisher because it was not a big name. The same substance of his
arguments appear in *The Creator and the Cosmos* and *Creation and Time*
which were both put out by IVP. Dr. Ross makes an excellent non-technical
presentation of the "fine tuning of the cosmological constants" and the
implications of "The Big Bang". However, he has a propensity of saying
things like "modern scientific discoveries *prove* the God of the Bible"
which I don't like. What happens if the Big Bang theory gets overturned?
Lots of people will think they need to throw Christianity in the trashcan
with the old scientific theories. He also has made some statements
concerning biology/fossil record that I would guess reflectorites such as
Glenn and Keith Miller would have a big problem with.
What is being questioned by the atheists is not evolution, per se, but the
classical "time + random chance" formulation. Because of a lot of the
problems that I am pestering Glenn with (and are acknowledged in the
literature), there simply doesn't appear to be enough time and/or favorable
conditions for evolution to occur by random chance. A lot of big name
atheists have bailed out of the "time + random chance" scenerio. There are
still a few holdouts like Richard Dawkins, but many people are proposing
alternate schemes. Francis Crick and Fredrick Hoyle propose that life
orginated elsewhere in the universe and got transplanted here. Another
whole school of people are proposing that universal organizing principles
exist that "drive" molecules (and biological organisms) to greater
complexity like gravity pulls water downhill. The raindrops (molecules or
organisms) combine into larger and larger rivulets and run downhill until
they find a level spot and collect in a pool (a stable complex
configuration). Like rain falling on a watershed, a slight perturbation in
the initial conditions results in the raindrop running into a different pool
of water. This is the concept that Loren Haarsma is referring to in his
YEC, OEC, PC, TE, etc. post in "3b1. Theistic Evolution with Designed
Outcome" when he says "Existing lifeforms being analogous to 'strange
attractors' in phase space."
I am not up to date on all the lastest findings in the area and I would
recommend that anybody who is interested check out the reference given by
Keith in another post.. ( "Chemical Evolution:Origin of Life" edited by
Cyril Ponnamperuma and Julian Chela-Flores, and published by A. Deepak
Publishing, 1993.) It is my understanding that the "univeral organizing
principles" paradigm is all the rage in the current research in the area.
In fact, in another conversation elsewhere, I was told that nobody currently
doing research in the field is even considers "time + random chance" to be a
plausible option. I cannot verify the truth of that claim, but perhaps
Glenn or Keith could.
__________________________________________________________
"Looking back, there's a thread of love and grace
Connecting each line and space I've known" -David Meece
==========================================================
Eddie Gene Olmstead, Jr. Chemistry Department
Asst. Professor of Chemistry Gordon College
Email: olmstead@gordonc.edu 255 Grapevine Road
Phone: (508) 927-2300 Ext. 4393 Wenham, MA 01984