Re: Of Martian Sculptures (was: Re: [asa] on science and meta-science)

"Very few TEs, at least on this list, have shown much interest in
front-loading, other than Mike Gene, who probably coined the term, and
Denis Lamoureux, who popped in for a while a few weeks ago, and then
exited again. Most TEs here seem to have opted either for the "subtle
intervention through quantum indeterminacy" route, or the "God never
intervenes in evolution + Darwinian and stochastic processes are the
drivers of macroevolutionary change + stochastic mechanisms are not in
contradiction with the mysterious providence of God as understood by
Calvinism and the Westminster Confession" route."

I don't know about the others but my TE position of course assumes frontloading, aka, embedded design. I don't see how TE differs from DE otherwise. I know we have had endless discussions about randomness according to our criteria still allowing design to a transcendental Designer but there is no point in conceding that. It seems possible to me that the various groups of control genes may have been programmed to be expressed at certain intervals and that in conjunction with the enviroment and other random factors yielded the desired trajectory.

I believe the history of life was a combination of randomness, i.e. endosymbiosis, chromosome fusion, etc. and some intentional unfolding of embedded design that was predestined to yield the basic classification system we have today. BTW that is also what rules out aliens in my mind.

Granted this is a position of faith but I contend it is in line with the science that we know today and not falsifiable to my knowledge. I think this is the appropriate place to draw the line between science and faith for now. Not to say it may not change but that is ok too.

John

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Received on Fri Nov 13 19:45:52 2009