Re: [asa] How big a deal is homology?

On 3/27/07, David Opderbeck <dopderbeck@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> *For this reason, though I once thought that software-module re-use was a
> good explanation (and several creationists I've tried to argue with have
> made such arguments as Jim presents below), I no longer do so.
> *
> This is one thing that bothered me about Collins' book. He certainly
> establishes beyond doubt the genetic relationships that tie all of life
> together and that fact that the human genome has changed over time. But I
> still think there's a big leap between those facts and a complete
> evolutionary story that necessarily elides any acts of progressive creation.
>

To be sure there are gaps, but it is the job of science to fill the gaps,
and not really to give up and say that God is in the gaps.

>
>
> And also, computer code is only one metaphor for creation. We could also
> think of God as an artist working on a canvas, striving for sweep, grandeur,
> and pure expression, rather than a computer engineer striving for the
> most parsimonious code. If we were to examine a master painting carefully
> with x-rays and such, we'd be able to see early sketches, foundational color
> layers, and the like, which were part of the creative process, but which
> aren't all directly functional in the finished work. We might even find
> bits of whimsy -- "easter eggs" and graffiti -- that have no functional
> relationship to the finished work at all. Whether we view these things as
> wasteful mistakes, or as flashes of creative spirit, depends on how we
> approach the artist and his work.
>

I don't really find the artist metaphor any more convincing than the
computer code one. It's not a question of early sketches being found under
the layers. The pseudo-gene that is a working gene in other species is not
beneath the surface - it's directly in the code. It is as if your artist
had clumsily scribbled over a bit of the picture that you're now supposed to
ignore. I think your illustration merely replaces an incompetent computer
programmer with a bodger of an artist. Neither of these really correspond
to the God I worship. But to pull of a trick like defining the laws and
constants of the universe so that everything assembles itself automatically
- now that's really impressive!

Iain

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