Re: [asa] The Multiverse - Physics or Metaphysics?

Ian Strachan wrote:

>Hi, Phil,

>Can I say that I always appreciate your carefully thought out posts!

>>I completely agree with Johnston that this paper overthrows the claims of
>> the ID movement. I've been saying this for many years, that the ID movement
>> can never be correct the way it is formulated because it is impossible to
>> prove intelligent design when all you have to work with is "cosmic
>> improbability" (CI). They should have called it the CI movement and made no
>> claims about intelligence and then it would have been a defensible or at
>> least scientifically meaningful position.

>Did you mean Johnston? I don't think Lawrence Johnston (who posted it)
said it overthrows ID claims. I think perhaps you meant Koonin (the author
of the paper).

--------------------------------------
Larry Johnston now writes:

Hi, Ian and Phil. Thank you for wrestling with this unsettling estimate.
And Ian, thanks for straightening out the source of the ID comment.

My take on that comment is that Koonin is making a perfunctory statement
against ID, at the end of his paper. You have probably noticed that this
sort of statement appears in a large number of papers by Biologists and
some other scientists and science journalists, and seems to be an
important cultural requirement.

My wife and I have lunch with two Biology professors each week when they
are in town, and I plan to ask them next Wednesday, if they understand
where such an impetus comes from. Blessings, and Stay tuned!

Lawrence Johnston, ASA member

"Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not"

A. Einstein

==========================================================
Lawrence H. Johnston home: 917 E. 8th st.
professor of physics, emeritus Moscow, Id 83843
University of Idaho (208) 882-2765
Fellow of the American Physical Society
http://www.uidaho.edu/~johnston/HOMEPA~1.HTM =============

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