Re: Speculative Design Hypothesis (with predictions)
- From: "Richard Forrest" <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 1 Mar 2006 14:17:16 -0800
Wall Of Sleep wrote:
Richard Forrest wrote:
Wall Of Sleep wrote:
Just to point out a few responses which have been ignored...
WoS:You are grossly oversimplifying things. I can only assume you
haven't
read any of Behe's answers to his critics.
http://www.trueorigin.org/behe03.asp
I can only assume as well, that your knowledge of the case for ID is
cursory.
RF: The is Michael Behe, who conceeded under oath that ID is not
science.
You evidently disagree with him.
I've read those transcripts. Basically, if you're going to define
"science" as "naturalism", ID *is not* science. It's a narrow definition
that purposely excludes ID.
It's not a "narrow definition". It is the definition of science as it
has developed over the past four centuries, and the discipline within
which all scientists in all fields operate. It doesn't "purposely
exclude ID". The rest of the scientific world has not decided to change
the basis on which it operates because a few religious cooks make
noises.
I suggest that you take up the argument on whether or not ID is science
with Behe.
WoS: ID is more logical than evolution
RF: It is? It explains anything, predicts nothing and cannot be
falsified. It's scientifically valueless
WoS: and has a mechanism
RF: What mechanism? It specifically avoids any speculation on the
nature of the designer or the mechanism.
The mechanism is intelligent agency. This mechanism is more observed
than mutation.
Have you observed an intelligent agency manufacturing a flagellum for a
bacterium?
If so, publish the results in NATURE.
The assertion of ID is that some structures can only be explained by
the intervention of an intelligent agency, but they are very, very
quiet on the matter of the mechanisms involved.
WoS: that has been observed
RF: So you are asserting that the "intelligent designer" has been
observed
fiddling with DNA to create a flagellum on a bacterim?
I must of missed the publication of this extraoridinary event in
NATURE.
That's as preposterous as me asking if evolution has been observed
creating bat wings out of mammalian forelimbs.
We have plenty of evidence from morphology, the fossil record, genetics
and develpmental biology to show how the forelimbs of a mammalian
ancestor can be transformed into the wings of a bat. This scenario
makes predictions which can be tested against genetics and the fossil
record. It's not preposterous at all: it's the best explanation for the
evidence.
Your mechanism has not been observed doing anything like that - yet you
are perfectly willing to extrapolate that it is able to do so - based on
the limited changes evidenced by observable mutation.
What "limited changes"? Nothing in genetics has suggested that there
are any limits to the change. What we find in the genome and the fossil
record is a finely graded succession of form with no discontiunities.
There is absolutely no evidence of limtations to genetic changes
through mutation. It's reasonable to suppose that there are none, as
all the evidence suggests that this is the case.
The mechanism of intelligent agency has been observed designing *all
known* instances of complex specified information (outside of nature),
"Complex specified information" is a falacy! It presumes the consequent
- i.e. that complexity needs to be specified. What we find in
mathematics and physics is that complex outcomes can arise from simple
systems, with no need at all to invoke the presupposition of
specification.
Biological systems are complex. That does not mean that they have to be
designed. They have, after all, had 3,500 million years to develope
that complexity.
it is just as logical to extrapolate from this that an intelligent
agency could have designed life.
It's not logical at all, as it is founded on a logical falacy.
to create complex specified information (CSI).
You realise, of course, that CSI falls into the logical falacy of
presuming the consequent.
Evolution, on
the other hand, has no observed mechanism
Haven't you heard of the science of genetics? It's made substantial
advances in the past century or so, and provides the key to the
mechanism by which the variation on which selection acts can be
generated by processes which can be observed and measured.
You need to bring yourself up to date on the advances in our knowledge
of biology over the past few decades or so.
which has been shown capable
of doing that.
Let's take the process of protein synthesis for example. This is a
process which begins with a strand of complex specified information
presuming the consequent again...
-
DNA. This strand is then *transcribed* into mRNA. This process alone is
unexplainable by natural mechanisms.
My word! There are a lot of people working in the biological sciences
who disagree with you, of course, but hey! What do they know? They only
*know* about the subject.
Where did DNA come from?
Neither have you. Saying that an unspecified "intelligent designer" did
it using supernatural processes is not an explanation.
I'n any case, why should I? Im not a biochemist. If you want to know,
read the literature. I can't give a coherent explantion for quantum
tunneling either. That doesn't mean that "God did it" is a useful
explanation.
So far none of the evolutionary experts here on this forum have come up
with a believable evolutionary pathway for the development of protein
synthesis.
And I just picked "protein synthesis" out of a hat. I have the feeling I
could pick just about *any* feature and no one here could explain how it
was produced by evolution. Yet you all so fervently defend it. This is
pretty troubling.
You can hand wave and pontificate all you want,
I'm not pontificating. I'm pointing out that
1) ID is not science according to one of its founders
Not by your new narrow definition of science.
It's not a "new definition". It's has been the presumption of science
for over two centuries.
2) ID offers no mechanism
Intelligent agency *is* a mechanism.
No, and agency is an agency. Saying something was "designed" by an
"intelligent designer" tells us absolutely nothing about the mechanism.
I have designed buildings. That tells you nothing about how those
buildings were build.
3) ID makes no predictions
It predicts that *only* intelligent agency is capable of producing
life's building blocks and most of it's features (allowing for a limited
evolution within families - as has been observed).
That's not a prediction. It's the old "God of the gaps" argument, and
offers no predictive value at all. If, as asserted, there is only
evolution within families (which is, incidentally a taxonomic
convenience which cannot be rigidly defined), we should expect to see
genetic and morphological discontinuities between families.
We don't.
4) ID cannot be falsified
Yes it can. Just give me a believable evolutionary pathway for protein
synthesis.
That is not a falsification of ID. It's offering evidence in support of
evolution by small incremental steps.
To falsify ID you need to propose a phenomenon which ID *can't*
explain. I can' t think of any possible phenomenon which could not be
explained by the assertion that an "intelligent designer", of
unspecified but possibly supernatural powers interferes in an
unspecified but possibly supernatural manner with normal evolutionary
processes. Perhaps you can, but until you do so you can't claim that ID
can be falsified.
but where's
the evidence that the corruption of existing data (mutations) can
produce protein synthesis?
Genes make proteins. That's essentially all they do. They usually work
in conjuction with other genes - i.e the proteins made by one gene
trigger the formation of proteins in other genes and so on in a cascade
which ends up building bodies and metabolic systems.
And these "protein factories" came into existence how?
Read about the RNA world.
You asked about protein synthesis.
That's what genes do.
There are many known mutation by which gene sequences are duplicated.
If genes on the duplicated set are knocked out by known processes of
mutation, they are no longer manufacturing the same proteins. So new
proteins are introduced into the developmental and metabolic pathways
which may create differences in morphology and biochemistry. Some of
these differences may be selected by environmental or other factors in
populations of organisms in which the modifed genes have become
established by reproductive processes.
This is called evolution. It's very well studied, and well-supported by
data. It makes predictions, and can be falsified by experiment and
observation.
Yes. All that's been observed, yet there are an almost infinite number
of gaps which evolution has no rational explanation for.
And you make this statement from a thorough and exhaustive knowledge of
the mechanics of genetics and biochemistry, do you?
If there are gaps in our knowledge of how these things work in detail,
perhaps you can explain how attributing them to an "Intelligent
designer" in any way helps us to understand the processes?
We do research into things we don't know. If we knew all the answers
there wouldn't be any need for research.
Lets just start
with protein synthesis...
What's your problem with protein synthesis? That's what genes do -
synthesis proteins.
BTW, Stephen Meyer *did* have a paper on ID published in a peer reviewed
journal.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2177
...which he slipped past normal peer-review by dishonest methods, and
which has been repudiated by the journal in question.
What evidence do you have that his paper was "slipped past normal
peer-review by dishonest methods"?
Read the link below. You can find a statement to that effect on the web
site of the relevant journal.
http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2004/08/meyers_hopeless_1.html
Not very impressive, is it? Ten years and 30 million dollars, and the
DI can produce only one paper, and that has been repudiated by the
journal in question. In most universities there is an expectation that
researchers produce a number of papers every year, and in some they
risk losing their jobs if they don't. Perhaps the DI should sack all
it's researchers.
There is a concerted effort among mainstream scientists to blacklist ID
papers.
Bollocks. There has been no ID research.
It's been a rallying call for years.
Where? Most scientists in the world aren't even aware of ID. It's more
or less a purely USA'ian phenomenon.
Most IDers have given up
even trying.
No IDers have done any research at all.
And why should they? Their message is out there for all to
see anyway.
If ID is founded on sound science, they should be doing the research.
That's what scientists do, and there are many IDers with a perfectly
reputable track record in scientific research.
BTW, I read the "repudiation" of Meyer's paper offered by these
"experts". They don't make a very convincing case at all IMO. It's just
the usual mumbo jumbo - with no real concrete evidence for evolution or
against ID.
Why am I not surprised?
Dr. Lee Spetner has also had papers published - though not specifically
on ID.
So have many other creationist scientists. So what? None of those
papers has offered support for creationism or ID. Which goes to show
that creationists can get scientific paper published if they stick to
science. The fact that they don't get ID papers published shows that
there ain't no science in ID.
Spetner's papers were a statistical analysis of mutations.
No they were not. Spetner was a physicist before he became involved in
creationism. His papers are on subjects like:
Spetner, Lee M., "Errors in power spectra due to finite samples,"
Journal of Applied Physics (May 1954)
In his book
"Not By Chance", he makes the case that random mutations cannot account
for the diversity of life. I can only assume his papers echo that
philosophy.
No they don't. And the reason why he published them in a book is that
his argument would not stand up to the rigours of peer-review.
If you think ID is science, take it up with Michael Behe. He doesn't
think it is. I agree with him.
Too bad that's the only thing you agree with him on.
Why? What do you think ID has to offer to a science?
All ID can offer is Paley's watchmaker argument, which was rejected by
science over two centuries ago because it is an untestable assertion
which leads nowhere.
If "an intelligent designer did it" is offered as an explanation, it
leads absolutely nowhere. It is a barrier to further research, and
utterly useless as an explanation.
RF
.
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