Re: [asa] Timaeus--ID isn't "god of the gaps"

From: Jim Armstrong <jarmstro@qwest.net>
Date: Wed Nov 05 2008 - 23:58:07 EST

To take this just one small step forward perhaps, if the example is farming instead, where a farmer preferentially selects seeds from individual instances of his crop that have some improvement in characteristics, then he is imposing a selective process onto a bio-process (which by its nature mutates to some extent). This sort of forced evolution is well known, exercised historically in farming, and is rooted in human intent.
 
JimA [Friend of ASA]

Nucacids wrote:

Hi Gregory,

 

"Yes, Mike, I think we are on the same page here. It makes no sense to speak of 'a mind using evolution to carry out an objective.'

 

I don't think we are on the same page, as an idea that makes no sense to you makes a lot of sense to me.  Minds enlist and recruit all sorts of processes to carry out objectives.  For example, the Casino owner uses games of chance to carry out the objective of making a profit.  Or, to offer a more relevant hypothetical, I have no trouble envisioning minds using evolution to carry out the objective of terraforming a planet.  Or carefully choosing the structure/architecture of life such that a nervous system was likely to evolve into existence. 

 

- Mike

 

 

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message. Received on Wed Nov 5 23:58:32 2008