He's got a point, Stephen. The way you think about design leaves you
wide open to an unfalsifiability charge. If we formulate notions of
design so that it will be "detected" no matter what the outcome, then
design is a tautology -- precisely what ID'ers accuse natural selection &
survival of the fittest as being.
Steve C.
On Sat, 5 Aug 2000 11:04:24 +0100 "Richard Wein" <rwein@lineone.net>
writes:
> I know I promised I wouldn't respond to any more of Stephen Jones's
> nonsense, but this one is just too good to go unmentioned. ;-)
>
> From: Stephen E. Jones <sejones@iinet.net.au>
>
> [...]
>
> >Agreed this is the minimalist ID position. If it turns out that the
> flowchart
> >for the origin of life from chemicals up to the first living cell
> can be
> >followed by a human level intelligence to create life in vivo, it
> may be
> then
> >realised that the task is far beyond the capacity of unintelligent
> causes.
> That
> >would be sufficient to establish Intelligent Design.
>
> So, if life can be created in vivo, that would establish ID.
>
> >But it may be that in attempting to do this, it will be found it is
> beyond
> >human level intelligence as well. For example, I was reading the
> other day
> a
> >book by a molecular biologist who suggested this might well be the
> case:
> >
> > "In these days of astounding advances in science and technology it
> > is perhaps rash to declare dogmatically that anything such as the
> > artificial synthesis of a living cell is impossible. Yet, on what
> sort of
> > microloom would a biologist weave the membranes of the
> > endoplasmic reticulum, or with what delicate needles could a
> > biologist fashion the intricacies of the cell nucleus? ...Will it
> ever be
> > possible for a living cell to be constructed from scratch under
> > controlled laboratory conditions? Perhaps it is pointless to
> continue
> > with such speculations because there seems to be a step beyond
> > which man cannot go-try as he may. (Price F.W., "Basic Molecular
> > Biology," 1979, pp.466-467)
> >
> >If that is the case, and anyone who studies in detail the
> *fantastic*
> >functional complexity of even the simplest bacterial cell would
> have to
> >concede that it *might* be, then it would be even more beyond the
> >capacity of unintelligent causes. Then the only option left is a
> supernatural
> >level of intelligence.
>
> So, if life *cannot* be created in vivo, that would establish ID
> too!
>
> Richard Wein (Tich)
>
>
>
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