Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Is information in the Cell More Like the Grand Canyon or the Grand Canyon Suite?

Cell structure of a bacterium, one of the two ...                                       Image via Wikipedia
A fine review of Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design appears in the New Oxford Review.

I like one analogy -- the Grand Canyon.  We ask, "what created the grand canyon" but, "who created the Grand Canyon Suite".

Information in the cell -- is it more like the Grand Canyon or the Grand Canyon Suite?

The Darwinist's only possible answer is the Grand Canyon. The theist can be open-minded and genuinely inquisitive. From a theist's point of view, it is possible that life came about by direct miraculous agency or by preordained natural processes infused with creative potential.

What both paths share is this: where there's information, there's a mind. Where there's a mind, there's a Person.
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2 comments:

Paul MacPhail said...

Interesting topic. The only part that doesn't make sense to me personaly is the last paragraph, particularly the line "Where there's information there's a mind". I believe that the human body itself is the perfect design for a human being, but I think they are two different things. I'm no scientist, and I'm not religious (that doesn't mean I'm an athiest either) but I've grown to the opinion that the human body was designed as the perfect place for a soul to inhabit. It works very well: we can move around, we can communicate, and we can produce more host bodies for more souls. Although the body exists carrying cellular life, I think there is a distinction between a mind, which to my belief is the soul/personality of the being, and the brain, which is merely a connecting point for the mind to operate the body. When science and religion work together, I think it raises the ability to understand what really constitutes a human being.

BallBounces said...

Good comment.

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"