bivalve wrote:
>
> > Like the other physicists here, I simply don't see how the possibility for new types of organization to be introduced without there being corresponding changes in the properties of matter and its interactions, and thus in the laws that describe the physical world - whether those laws deal with particles or fields, or are classical or quantum.<
>
> I would take Peter's model of God selecting an extremely improbable outcome to produce a novel structure as an example of introducing a new type of organization without a change in the laws of physics. Similarly, creating some entity ex nihilo (e.g., the first cell) and then letting it carry on under ordinary providence would not require an alteration of the laws of physics, though they would be set aside in the creation event itself.
>
> Dr. David Campbell
Thank you, David, for this correction of the discussion! You just
anticipated my intervention (persuasive, I hope, rather than
attempted-coercive).
Let me just add that, in my model, the extreme improbabilities accrue in
sequences of nonselected mutations which are not, in themselves, highly
improbable. In any case, no alteration of the laws of physics is
implied, as you rightly observe. God's selective actions hypothesized
for each of these mutations in the sequence may, nevertheless, be called
"supernatural", or a "miracle", in the sense that in this way, God is
introducing information into the organism's genome, which otherwise
wouldn't be there.
Peter
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