Marcio Pie has responded in ways that I am sympathetic with.
However, I will respond to Glenn's original post.
> Suppose I hide a strong electromagnetic wire under the floor of my house
> going from my favorite chair to the window. I then manufacture a toy car
> that moves randomly but has a slight tendency to move toward strong
> magnetic fields. [snip]
Your example is full of "design" ingredients. It does not provide
much of an analogy with the forces of natural selection - your
selection force is easily identifiable and consistent. It is
possible to predict its effect.
> God essentially placed hidden wires into the fabric of the universe. These
> hidden wires are buried in the sequence spaces of the DNA.
One might expect your analogy to be "random variations" to be
analogous to mutations, "hidden wires" to be analogous to natural
selection. The way you are developing the analogy requires some
mental effort.
> A sequence space
> is a multidimensional space in which an entire dna sequence represents one
> point. Your DNA represents one point in this billion+ dimensional space.
> My DNA another, every human represents a point. All these points, the 6
> billion points created by all humans, forms a cloud in a region of sequence
> space that represents our species. Other species are represented by other
> clouds of points each in a characteristic region of space. Between the
> clouds are small regions which allow one species to evolve into another.
I think you ought really say "hypothetical small regions". No one
has yet established their existence.
> This is illustrated below (which won't look good in the archive):
>
> parent daughter
> species species
> . . . . .
> . . . . . .
> .. .. ............... .. . .
> . . . pathway for . . . .
> . . evolution . .
>
> cloud 1 cloud 2
> species 1 species 2
I accept that this would be the Darwinian way of looking at things.
The Basic Type biologist would have a similar portrayal of genomic
phase space - but involving Basic Type clouds and without the
hypothetical linkages.
> Since some DNA sequences create living systems some don't, some points in
> the space are forbidden with others allowed. Those points that are allowed
> are potential living creatures. Those that are not allowed is the space
> around these clouds.
We are agreed that some spaces are forbidden! There has been a
continuum of views about this: from "no forbidden space" to "complete
forbidden space" between the clouds.
> Randomly mutating a population makes the dots move around in the cloud
> region. Eventually some of the dots will make it into the tunnel
> connecting the two clouds.
I suggest "the hypothetical tunnel".
> Speciation then had begun.
time. Speciation occurs as the "dots move around in the cloud
region". This is a fundamental difference between Basic Type Biology
and Darwinism. For Darwinists, all speciation is evolution. For BT
biologists, speciation is a secondary effect: exploring different
permutations of genetic information but always within the Basic Type.
> Further random
> mutations will force a few of the members of species 1 to travel down the
> tunnel into the region of the new species, species 2.
This is loaded terminology! Mutations do not force anything! This
is where you need natural selection in your scenario.
> Now, to the
> observer, who is not paying attention to the sequence space geometry, the
> mutations appear random and indeed they are. But the pathway from species
> 1 to species 2 creates a situation where eventually some small population
> will travel down the tunnel and create species 2.
As long as this is understood as happening within a Basic Type,
Glenn's description is OK with me.
> Here is the important part. God created the sequence spaces when he
> created the DNA system. God laid down the paths of the sequence space. HE
> DETERMINED THEM.
I hope we can all agree on this. This to me is intelligent design.
The sequence space is information-rich, and the source of biological
information is an intelligent Being, not a physical process.
> What [to] you looks like lack of purpose is because you are
> not looking at the right place. God purposed that we would exist and he
> rigged the sequence space so that a random walk of genomes would eventually
> lead to us.
Glenn, your punch line has the biggest mental leap! You need to
demonstrate:
(a) that the sequence space is "rigged",
(b) that a random walk of genomes leads to man.
Both these principles are resolutely opposed by mainstream
Darwinists.
If I were to suggest a route forward here: the writer you ought to
have the closest affinity with is Michael Denton. His recent book on
Design in the biological world is arguing for God using natural
processes to achieve his creative purposes. However, Denton does not
find this principle consistent with Darwinism!
Best regards,
David J. Tyler.