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Biology cannot continue to ignore first and final cause.

I for one do not understand how it is possible logically to speak of a biological function without reference to a final cause.

By final cause, Aristotle meant purpose, goal, or limit. Aristotle says that the final cause is the cause for the sake of which all the other causes exist — the formal, material, and efficient causes. The natural sciences seem to recognize only two of Aristotle's causes, the material and the efficient. Formal cause is basically reduced to initial conditions. There is NO final cause. So what you end up with is defining a biological system in terms of "matter in its motions." Which to me is a monstrous reduction....

Clearly, biological systems are more than matter in motion. If that were all they were, then how to explain their uncanny ability to maintain their distance from thermodynamic equilibrium for extended periods of time?

First cause is not about "initial conditions." It is about origins — not the same thing as "initial conditions." Aristotle calls the first cause the "uncaused cause" of the cosmos, the "unmoved mover" of all that exists. Because it is uncaused, it arises from "beyond" the world of natural objects (which are all subject to the laws of causation).

Final cause, again, is about purpose, or goal to be reached. In the above case, the goal is maintaining distance from equilibrium. Biological functions are targeted to the fulfillment of specific organismic goals; e.g., metabolism, cellular repair, and so forth. Clearly, these are final causes within Aristotle's meaning of the term.

Robert Rosen believed that biology cannot but fail to "hit the wall" if it continues to refuse to engage all four causes in its explanations of biological organisms; that the Newtonian reduction of causation to just material and efficient causes applied to biological systems, is truly a poison pill — if what we are looking for is comprehensive understanding of biological nature.

Thank you so much for writing, dearest sister in Christ, and for your kind words of support!

"Clearly, biological systems are more than matter in motion. If that were all they were, then how to explain their uncanny ability to maintain their distance from thermodynamic equilibrium for extended periods of time?"

It is not just an ability, it is a will ... living things have a will that inanimate things do not possess. This will is somehow connected to but not solely attached to the spacetime coordinate system of daily living in which thermodynamic events occur. The denial of this reality is what hallamrks God deniers, as they seek to establish a hard and fast rule that there is no thing beyond this realm in which they can measure thermodynamic events.

Upon death of an organism, the individual 'ism' appears to leave the spacetime coordinates of its physical manifest. But the cells or organs of that 'organ ism' have yet to fall fully under imperious thermodynamic equilibrium. The coordinate system of thermo equi is a spacetime phenomenon in which the Physics and Chemistry of physical life occurs (euphemistically known as three dimensions of space and one of time).

The leaving that the organism does is not solely a spacetime phenomenon as we describe spacetime. It occurs via a coordinate system which is connected to/interacting with but not the same as that of the Physics and Chemistry of thermodynamic equilibrium.

The indirect evidence of this reality may be found in near death experiences, which are real. The data which is acquired during such an event, when shared upon return to this coordinate system, evidences a reality which is much greater than our perceptions coordinates.

As a Christian, I am absolutely convinced that the miracles Christ performed/performs are accomplished via interaction between another coordinate system and that of our physical bodies. That a man has a will can be easily illustrated with one scene: a man chooses to starve himself to death even with abundant food offered and available to him. Making that choice is evidence of his will. Were he merely a physio-chemical thing, consumption (staving off theromodynamic equilibrium) could not be thwarted by his choice.

It is already looking like a train wreck in slow motion as they are applying information theory (a branch of mathematics) to molecular biology (Yockey, Shannon, Rosen et al.)

When they created polio virus in a laboratory back in 2002, starting with the information content off the internet and mail order materials, it should have raised a red flag.

It also seems apparent to me in the biological systems functioning (with maintenance and repair) to the survival of the higher organism. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

As Rosen pointed out in Life Itself the information model is circular in biological systems.

Thank you so very much for all of your wonderful essays, dearest sister in Christ!