On Wed, 17 Jan 1996 17:03:27 GMT you wrote:
[...]
DT>It seems to me that Jim was right to ask the question, and I
>would like to hazard a response.
>Intelligent design is evidenced in, for example, the DNA code,
>where there is no physical or chemical reason for the sequencing,
>and where the sequencing has no direct connection to the
>phenotype. We have raw information, analogous to machine code
>computer software.
Oller & Omdahl point out that human syntactic language capacity is
encoded in our DNA:
"In the final analysis, the biochemist seems to be pointed toward the same
surprising conclusion as the linguist. The whole cascading network of
relationships must be specified within rather narrowly defined limits in order
for any organism whatever to be a viable possibility. Moreover, the problem of
biogenesis and the origin of the human language capacity are linked at their
basis by more than just a remarkable analogy. It turns out that the human
genome must include the essential characteristics of the entire conceptual
system that we find manifested in the great variety of languages and their
uses, but within rather narrow limits, by human beings throughout the world.
Apparently human beings, and only humans, are specially designed to
acquire just the range of language systems that we see manifested in the
world's five thousand-plus languages. Therefore the human language capacity
must be expressed in the human genome itself."
(Oller J.W. & Omdahl J.L., "Origin of the Human Language Capacity:
In Whose Image?", in Moreland J.P. ed., "The Creation Hypothesis:
Scientific Evidence for an Intelligent Designer", InterVarsity Press:
Downers Grove Ill., 1994, pp254-255).
Dembski, speculates on a "Incredible Talking Pulsar" that announces
it is God's mouthpiece:
"Imagine that astronomers have discovered a pulsar some three billion
light- years from the earth. The pulsar is, say, a rotating neutron star
that emits regular pulses of electromagnetic radiation in the radio
frequency range. The astronomers who found the star are at first
unimpressed by their discovery- another star to catalog One of the
astronomers, however, is a ham radio operator. Looking over the
pattern of pulses one day, he finds that they are in Morse code. Still
more surprisingly, he finds that the patterns of pulses signal coded
English messages. ...once the pulsar has gained our attention, it
identifies itself. The pulsar informs us that it is the mouthpiece
of Yahweh, the God of both Old and New. Testaments, the Creator of
the universe, the final Judge of humankind.
(Dembski W.A., "On the Very Possibility of Intelligent Design" in
Moreland J.P. ed., "The Creation Hypothesis", Inter Varsity
Press: Downers Grove Ill., 1994, pp122-123)
It would obviously be a proof of God, that would compel belief, as
would finding a section of DNA that spelled out a message in a human
language: "GOD WAS HERE!"
What I wonder about, is there a "High Noon" approaching for the
atheists, in the shape of the Human Genome Project? If human language
has been "hard-wired" into our DNA, when the entire genome has been
unravelled, will scientists find there in the section specifying human
language, such an improbable degree of design that it be analogous to
a message saying "GOD WAS HERE!"?
I wonder what "tricks of the advocate's trade" Dawkins would use to
get around *that* one? No doubt he would think of something! :-)
God bless.
Stephen
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