Re: Where does information come from?

R Brown <brown@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

This question is asked of me repeatedly by a creationist promoter of ID who
had a booth at our teacher convention last February. Specifically, he asks:
Richard
You nor your truth talk buddies still haven't been able to answer my
question ? Where does information come from?

This is actually the fallacy of reification - treating an abstraction as
a concrete substance because there is a noun for it in our language.

If not from a designer then
where? Waiting for an answer from the scientific community.
Will
What does he mean or imply (or does he even know what he means?) when he
uses the word "information"?

I doubt he knows what he means in any precise way - he is probably using
an "I know it when I see it" concept. He probably thinks of it as
"anything meaningful".

Is DNA information?

Yes, or at rather it *contains* information. Indeed that is probably
the main target of the argument being used.

Is he asking for the origin of DNA?

Not really. The question is more how did it get to specify something as
complex as a human or a redwood tree.

Is the question disingenuous?

Absolutely. It is based on the silly idea that Information is somehow
"conserved" unless there is an intelligence around to "create" it. It
is essentially a false analogy between human information products (like
speech and databases) and the structured organization of genes in living
organisms.

--
The peace of God be with you.

Stanley Friesen

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