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To: garybob

"..but the science of chance"

You and all of us are undeniably a product of chance. IDers have a particular dislike for randomness, because they wish to think that everything is directed by some supra-natural entity (they actually mean the usual God, but pretend to accept other god-like types). Exactly how stars and planets coalesce from a circulating cloud of matter is an on-going area of investigation, but it is clear that accidents resulted in some chunks becoming large enough to perturb the system and thus accumulated at the expense of smaller chunks. This is pretty close to a random series of events.

The dislike for randomness is curious. In fact, every individual is a product of at least quasi-random events. Who we meet and have children with. And from basic facts of sexual reproduction itself, every ovum has a slightly different DNA arising from meiosis, and likewise every sperm. Granted that some parts of the divided-in-two chromosomes carry genetic information from the parent, but it is random which ones happen to combine. There is increasing evidence for a degree of randomness as to the chemical environment in the womb, which appears to have influence on the degrees of femaleness and maleness in the offspring. There is, thus, a large number of random events that are part of the heritage of every individual. (Unless, of course, one takes the view that each egg and sperm were individually directed by God. Nobody in biology would accept this, but as a matter of faith, it is unprovable.) Over the long course of history, there has been quasi-randomness as to which individuals get wiped out by natural disasters, from impacting asteroids to which succumb to disease. Chance has always played a role in life and always will.


81 posted on 11/17/2005 12:54:40 PM PST by thomaswest (Just Curious)
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To: thomaswest
IDers have a particular dislike for randomness,

Source this.

148 posted on 11/17/2005 2:34:25 PM PST by BlueYonder
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To: thomaswest
This goes under the rubric of Complexity Theory. There is an organized chaoticness to the way things work in the world and nothing is every completely straightforward. Life is messy and perhaps the biggest drawback to ID theory is that it ignores this facet of life on earth: that things do not seem to happen in a predictable manner. It goes back to that old question: does God play dice with the universe? If we have an Ultimate Designer, he doesn't seem to get every detail picture-perfect. Its a like a sweater that has a lot of kinks in it. If we pull at one thread, it unravels. None of this is a problem if we accept a naturalistic explanation. Imperfections are Nature's answers to the riddle of overcoming the challenges of existence.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

283 posted on 11/21/2005 12:17:48 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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