Reflectorites
On Tue, 17 Oct 2000 01:01:19 -0500, Chris Cogan wrote:
[...]
>CC>Susan, remind me to try to locate my copy of Kelly's book. It's a good
>book, but Kelly's not an authority on biology. His book is about
>*computers* and such.
Kelly's book "Out of Control" is subtitled "The New Biology of Machines".
It is about *artificial* life and deals extensively with computer simulations
of evolution, which is after all what this thread started by Wesley was
about.
The book was urged on me by a former Reflectorite who was atheist evolutionist
as evidence for evolution. I was suprised when I read it how devastating it
is *against* Darwinism!
[...]
This illustrates the duality that I mentioned in another post in this thread:
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On Mon, 16 Oct 2000 21:31:17 -0400, David Bradbury wrote:
[...]
SJ>It is interesting how often evolutionists
>have to start their arguments impugning the competence (and often the
>motives and morality) of the critic. Their proposition seems to be that
>evolution is so simple school kids in Kansas should be taught it, and
>anyone who doesn't believe it is "ignorant, stupid, insane or wicked" but it is
>also so hard that mathematicians and philosophers like Schutzenberger and
>Dembski are not able to understand it in order to criticise it!
[...]
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How come Chris and Susan, who appear to have no particular
qualifications or expertise in "biology", can pontificate on it, but as soon as
a critic appears, who might not be "an authority on biology", he is
dismissed by them out of hand without being heard?
BTW while he may not be "an authority on biology" Kelly is no slouch
either, revealing quite a bit of knowledge about evolution (even citing
Pierre Grasse!) so I would not be surprised if he had some background in
biology.
Steve
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"Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of
having been designed for a purpose." (Dawkins R., "The Blind
Watchmaker," [1986], Penguin: London, 1991, reprint, p.1)
Stephen E. Jones | Ph. +61 8 9448 7439 | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
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