RE: Order from chaos - according to New Mexicans for Science and Reason

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
> Behalf Of Iain Strachan
> Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 7:27 AM
> To: asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: Order from chaos - according to New Mexicans for Science and
> Reason
>
> The skeptic website "New Mexicans for Science and Reason" give the
> following web page to debunk creationist claims that order cannot
> arise out of a random process:
>
> http://www.nmsr.org/digdudle.htm
>
> It describes how a complex fractal pattern, known as a *Sierpinski
> gasket*, can arise from a random process plus a simple ordering rule.
> A quickbasic program they give to produce the pattern is less than 400
> keystrokes. They suggest you should send it to your creationist
> friends and it will "drive them nuts", and furthermore that the
> Sierpinski Gasket is the creationist's worst nightmare.

This wins the battle but loses the war for the skeptics. The Achilles heal
of the argument is the necessity of an ordering principle for order to come
from so-called chaos. If you observe order coming from random processes,
then you must conclude an ordering rule or principle. Under some
circumstances such principles may also imply design! For example, natural
selection is an ordering principle that does not imply design but
abiogenesis most likely does. Because ID has focused mostly on how
abiogenesis disproves evolution, the proof of design from abiogenesis is not
fully worked out in my opinion. Nevertheless, I do think that such an
argument is possible. I prefer so-called fine-tuning arguments over ID
because they prove intelligent design better. It's not the goals of ID that
I object to, it's their methods. It also makes for pretty easy "disproofs"
of God's creation like what is stated above.
Received on Sat Feb 26 10:48:47 2005