chance and selection

From: Bertvan@aol.com
Date: Tue Dec 05 2000 - 14:20:15 EST

  • Next message: Susan Cogan: "Re: chance and selection"

    From: ccogan@telepath.com (Chris Cogan)
    Chris:
    >First, the idea that chance can *never* (as Bertvan puts it) result in an
    >improvement in the genes of an organism is like the idea that one can
    >*never* get the right answer on a multiple-choice test question by randomly
    >selecting an answer (based on rolling a die, for example).

    Bertvan:
    I quite agree that one might randomly get the right answer to a
    mulitple-choice test, but I doubt you'd randomly get a correct answer
    consisting of several hundred words. Most biolgical systems are specified
    by thousands of nucleotides.

    Chris:
    >Thus, Bertvan's argument ends up undercutting her own position, because, if
    >organisms *were* designed, there'd be no need whatever for such a degree of
    >adaptability to changes in genes; each set of genes could be *precisely*
    >tuned from the start so that every part would work *perfectly* with all the
    >others, and thus never need to adjust to errant genetic changes. The fact
    >that there is such flexibility does not, of course *prove* that there is no
    >designer, but it certainly argues against the need for one, and makes the
    >designer (in yet another way) superfluous.

    Bertvan
    If I were the designer, I would include intelligence as a basic part of the
    design. That would be maximum flexibility - giving life itself the ability
    to make on the spot choices. Do you believe life is designed to be flexible,
    or did it occur by chance? Flexibility seems pretty wide spread to merely be
    the result of chance.

    Bertvan
    http://members.aol.com/bertvan

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