>Your view of evolutionary trial and error is certainly not the sort of TE
>Terry Gray has explained. Are you saying that God, rather than directing
>change, is actually watching the mutations make errors to be selected?
You mentioned being Arminian in your theology. I used to be Arminian in my
views until I saw what non-linear dynamics had to say about it. A physical
object controlled by non-linear laws can be perfectly free to move in any
direction (e.g. make any decision) but the laws force all roads to lead to the
same conclusion. The particle can go east,west, north, south up or down, but
the trajectory the particle makes in phase space (a plot of successive
locations against successive velocities) is as determined as any Calvinist
could want. These mathematical laws which govern all physical interactions,
are the perfect combination of Calvinism and Armenism. It really helped me
see how God could be in control and at the same time give me freedom--real
freedom.
What this is like is God created all the universe including the mathematical
objects called phase space. Every non-linear law has an attached phase space.
The phase space in one sense can be philosophically viewed as telling the
object how to move. But remember, God made the phase spaces. Thus by rigging
the game before it was played, God has assured Himself of the outcome and can
predict it with certainty. I have often talked about Sierpinski's Gasket and
my program which was derived from it by an accidental mutation to the
Sierpinski program. For those who don't know, the program makes a picture by
randomly choosing which direction to move a dot and then marking each location
the dot lands. The program is perfectly free to move the dot in any
direction, but it always produces the same picture. This is freedom combined
with determinism.
Living systems are governed by nonlinear laws and as such, while we may not be
able to predict the future trajectory of each particle, God can predict what
the picture will look like as I can predict what Sierpinski's gasket program
will produce.
Consider the same string of DNA in two different people--identical twins.
They each feel free (and ARE free) to make their own choices but one must
question whether this is so or opt for the nonlinear phase space approach.
Consider the following:
"I quote from a recent article in Science:
'When Oskar Stohr and Jack Yufe arrived in Minnesota to participate in
University of Minnesota psychologist Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr.'s study of
idential twins reared apart, they were both sporting blue double-breasted
epauletted shirts, moustaches, and wire-rimmed glasses. Idential twins
separated at birth, the two men in their late 40s, had met once before two
decades earlier. Nonetheless Oskar, raised as a Catholic in Germany, and
Jack, reared by his Jewish father in Trinidad, proved to have much in common
in thier tastes and personalities--including hasty tempers and idiosyncratic
senses of humor (both enjoyed surprising people by sneezing in elevators).'
And both flushed the toilet both before and after using it, kept rubber bands
around their wrists, and dipped buttered toast in their coffee."~Steven
Pinker, The Language Instinct, (New York: Harper/Perennial, 1994), p. 327
or
"Another pair of identical twins meeting for the first time discovered that
they both used Vademecum toothpaste, Canoe shaving lotion, Vitalis hair sonic,
and Lucky Strike cigarettes. After the meeting they sent each other identical
birthday presents that crossed in the mail. One pair of women habitually wore
seven rings. Another pair of men pointed out (correctly) that a wheel bearing
in Bouchard's car needed replacing. And quantitative research corroborates
the hundreds of anecdotes. Not only are very general traits like IQ,
extroversions, and neuroticism partly heritable, but so are specific ones like
degree of religious feeling, vocational interests, and opinions about the
death penalty, disarmament, and computer music."~Steven Pinker, The Language
Instinct, (New York: Harper/Perennial, 1994), p. 328
or
" Twins Jim Springer
and Jim Lewis, separated at birth in 1939, were reunited 39 years
later in a study of twins at the University of Minnesota. Both
had married and divorced women named Linda, married second wives
named Betty and named their oldest sons James Allan and James
Alan. More coincidences: both drove the same model of blue
Chevrolet, enjoyed woodworking, vacationed on the same Florida
beach and had dogs named Toy."~Heredity: They'll be the Same, But
Different", Newsweek, Nov. 8, 1993., p. 62
I would dare say that God, knowing what the exact DNA sequence in my body is,
would be able to predict that I am curious, argumentative, addicted to
reading, demanding etc. In short, God knows what my life and yours will
produce merely by knowing the DNA. I am free yet God knows what I am and what
I must do with my life.
glenn
Foundation,Fall and Flood
http://members.gnn.com/GRMorton/dmd.htm