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No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased Without Intelligence
... strukturalizma je u tome što ako su simetrija i kompleksnost samo sintaktičke i semantičke konstrukcije, zašto naše opservacije, eksperimentalna merenja i predviđanja pokazuju ove pravilnosti? 36 Možda bi, a u vezi s tim, trebalo pomenuti i tzv. "argument o ne-čudu" Ričarda Putnama (Mainzer, 2005a), koji ističe da je uspeh nauke čudo (neobičan) samo ako se pretpostavi da naučne teorije ne odražavaju stvarnost. ...
... Ovi procesi se uglavnom označavaju terminom predbiološka, ili hemijska evolucija. Hemijska evolucija se na prvi pogled suočava sa problemom termodinamike, jer je kompleksifikacija pre pojave samoorganizujućih svojstava živih bića termodinamički nepovoljan proces, i stoga je za razumevanje ovih procesa 36 Ova vrsta razmatranja se konceptualno ponavlja u različitim filozofskim raspravama. Na primer, u raspravi prirode lepote Dejvida Hjuma, postavljalo se pitanje da li je lepota objektivno svojstvo prirode ili predstave. ...
... Kada bi bilo moguće uspostaviti jasne matematičke kriterijume koje neki složeni sistem mora da ispuni da bi se mogućnost njegovog slučajnog nastanka mogla smisleno prihvatiti ili odbaciti, tada bi cela rasprava na liniji prirodna selekcija -inteligentni dizajn izgubila smisao, jer bi se prostom primenom datog kriterijuma automatski prihvatila ili odbacila teza o prirodnoj selekciji datog sistema. Baš to je pokušao matematičar i zastupnik teze o inteligentnom dizajnu, Vilijem Dembski, uspostavljajući rigorozan kriterijum za razlikovanje slučajno stvorenih sistema od inteligentno dizajniranih na osnovama informatičke teorije (Dembski, 1998(Dembski, , 2006 (Biologos, 2022), čime se osporava Modernoj sintezi objašnjavalački potencijal. Problem sa argumentom kambrijumske eksplozije je što se, iako su se tokom tog perioda zaista prvi put pojavila mnoga morfološko-anatomska rešenja životinjskog sveta, veliki broj formi tela nije pojavio tad, već mnogo kasnije (npr. ...
... On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been variously defined by Wikipedia as "the Intelligence of machine or Software, as opposed to the intelligence of human animal" It was further defined as an umbrella term that compasses a wide variety of technologies, including machine learning, deep learning and natural language". Artificial Intelligence (AI) "refers to the simulations of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and act like human (Witt and Young 1997;William, 2002). ...
... The fact remains that there cannot be a present without a past, and there cannot be a future without a past. Hence this study is directed at the evaluation of the relationship between Native and Artificial intelligence, with a view to understanding the Dynamics of their relationship and the benefits accruable to mankind in harnessing their relationships, To reconcile the human race with morality; in our quest for a new world of machine-driven Technology (William, 2002;Rehena, 2022). ...
Even though Western Ideologists tend to attribute Native Intelligence (NI) to Africans / third-word concepts, indistinctly fixed to value and belief that aided social cultural, religious, political economic, and sometimes spiritual evolution, ancient societies, However, the Emergence of Artificial intelligence (AI) being the capacity of a computer system or machine to mimic human cognitive such as learning and solving problems, through a computer system that uses mathematics and logic, to simulate the reasoning ability of man, through the process of learning from new information, and transforming such information into actions, by making decisions that has increasingly enhanced the quality of life of man. Therefore, researchers, are also of the school of thought that there cannot be a future without the past; and hence the purpose of this research is to take an overview of the relationship that may have existed between Native intelligence (NI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to harness the gains of the former to enhance the development, growth, and performance of the later for the benefit of mankind. To be able to achieve this; opinion samples were carried out in four states, of the Southwestern part of Nigeria, in selected Higher Institutions. Namely the-Ekiti, Ekiti-State. The questions determined during the survey was categorized into three (3); namely (a) YES, (b) NO, and (c) UNDECIDED. The statistical analysis of results indicated: 60.2,24.8,15%,63.4, 25.2%, 11.4% for Ondo; 64.1%, 23.7%, 12.2, for Osun; 74.0%, 18.4%, 7.6%, and61.8%, 22.8%, 15.4%, for Ekiti State with an overall cumulative average of 64.7%, 23.0%, and 12.3%. The findings show that Native Intelligence played a significant role in the development of Artificial Intelligence..
... On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been variously defined by Wikipedia as "the Intelligence of machine or Software, as opposed to the intelligence of human animal" It was further defined as an umbrella term that compasses a wide variety of technologies, including machine learning, deep learning and natural language". Artificial Intelligence (AI) "refers to the simulations of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and act like human (Witt and Young 1997;William, 2002). ...
... The fact remains that there cannot be a present without a past, and there cannot be a future without a past. Hence this study is directed at the evaluation of the relationship between Native and Artificial intelligence, with a view to understanding the Dynamics of their relationship and the benefits accruable to mankind in harnessing their relationships, To reconcile the human race with morality; in our quest for a new world of machine-driven Technology (William, 2002;Rehena, 2022). ...
Even though Western Ideologists tend to attribute Native Intelligence (NI) to Africans / third-word concepts, indistinctly fixed to value and belief that aided social cultural, religious, political economic, and sometimes spiritual evolution, ancient societies, However, the Emergence of Artificial intelligence (AI) being the capacity of a computer system or machine to mimic human cognitive such as learning and solving problems, through a computer system that uses mathematics and logic, to simulate the reasoning ability of man, through the process of learning from new information, and transforming such information into actions, by making decisions that has increasingly enhanced the quality of life of man. Therefore, researchers, are also of the school of thought that there cannot be a future without the past; and hence the purpose of this research is to take an overview of the relationship that may have existed between Native intelligence (NI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to harness the gains of the former to enhance the development, growth, and performance of the later for the benefit of mankind. To be able to achieve this; opinion samples were carried out in four states, of the Southwestern part of Nigeria, in selected Higher Institutions. Namely the-Ekiti, Ekiti-State. The questions determined during the survey was categorized into three (3); namely (a) YES, (b) NO, and (c) UNDECIDED. The statistical analysis of results indicated: 60.2,24.8,15%,63.4, 25.2%, 11.4% for Ondo; 64.1%, 23.7%, 12.2, for Osun; 74.0%, 18.4%, 7.6%, and61.8%, 22.8%, 15.4%, for Ekiti State with an overall cumulative average of 64.7%, 23.0%, and 12.3%. The findings show that Native Intelligence played a significant role in the development of Artificial Intelligence..
... (1994: chapter 1 I.27) 18 A small minority of authors claims that referring to something supernatural is still needed to explain some complexities (e.g. Behe 1996;Dembski 2002). Most, however, agree that Darwin's theory suffices to explain apparent design in nature. ...
... He also argues that Lewis' theory can probably explain other religious experiences as well. Fales concludes that 19 See for example ( Dembski 2002). 20 See (Lewis 1989 naturalistic explanations of religious experiences are more powerful than theistic explanations ( Fales 1996b). ...
... 4 In part 3 we saw that these enzymes probably arose via mutations from a different enzyme. Is this an example of information having arisen for free, contra what Dembski 5 and so many others have claimed? ...
Three novel enzymes, E-I, E-II, and E-III can hydrolyze amide bonds of side-products from the manufacture of nylon-6. This has been incorrectly interpreted as proof for evolution, meaning descent of all organisms from a common ancestor, since they had not existed before. We evaluate the origin of these enzyme variants with Coded Information System (CIS) theory, which describes logic processing using four refinement components: coded messages, sensors, physical hardware and pre-loaded resources. Since after the completion of Creation Day 6 God rested, the individual organisms, and ecologies produced so far had to be adaptable to new contingencies in real time and across generations. This implies that they were created as open programs based on general and flexible principles and not hard-coded instructions limited to solving individual challenges. The ability to fine-tune enzymes such as E-I, E-II, and E-III to permit catalyzing reactions in a modified chemical context is a natural consequence of an open program design.
... 55 William Dembski has suggested a statistical model, inspired by the Drake equation from astrobiology, that may be useful to analyze probabilities of Behe-systems, and he found very low values. 56 The paper by Douglas Axe we referred to earlier is an empirical study of a single protein that typically would be involved as one of the constituting parts of a Behesystem. Protein sequence space may look like a limitless desert of maladjusted sequences with only a few oases of working sequences, as outlined by the experiments by Axe. ...
Natural Theology is an attempt to provide arguments for the existence of God based on reason and ordinary experience of nature. It became quite popular with both orthodox Christians and Deists between about 1650 and 1850, inspiring much of the scientific fieldwork done during that period. However, Darwin’s theory of evolution brought about a temporary decline of this Christian apologetic tradition. Intelligent Design is a relatively new scientific research program that investigates the effects of intelligent sources, and challenges basic parts of contemporary Darwinism. Fred Hoyle first issued the ideas of Intelligent Design in modern times when he discovered the unique energy level of the carbon atom in the 1950s. On Copernicus’s 500th birthday in 1973, Brandon Carter presented the discovery that the fundamental constants of physics are fine-tuned to precise values for life permittance. In the 1990s, Michael Behe and others presented arguments for Intelligent Design in molecular biology, and irreducibly complex biochemical machines in living cells. In this paper, we briefly present Intelligent Design and discuss its possible application within a revitalized version of Natural Theology. The paper is mainly written from a scientific perspective.
... As is usually the case in the US, at least since the Eighties, claims that different forms of creationism are valid alternatives to Darwinian evolution and should be included in the science curriculum are fiercely resisted by boards of education and courts of justice. I refer to different forms of creationism to encompass both biblical versions -such as Young-Earth creationism or so-called Creation Science, as defended by Morris and Whitcomb (1961)-and the more sophisticated versions that accept large portions of mainstream evolutionary theory but dispute that a purely naturalistic and non-teleological evolution is sufficient to explain the origin, development and diversity of life, and that we should therefore consider the directed action of a conscious agent -such as Intelligent Design (ID) theory, as defended by Johnson (1991), Behe (1996), Campbell and Meyer (2003), and Dembski (2006). I will not press their differences any further for this paper. ...
Most debates surrounding the teaching of creationism in the science classroom have been addressed under a standard frame: whether creationism is science or religion. As creationism suggests supernatural causation, it has been understood as beyond the purview of science, and therefore as religion. This argument for methodological naturalism has been increasingly challenged by philosophers of science as a demarcation criterion. The disaggregation approach introduced by Cecile Laborde provides an alternative framework to address this debate. It suggests that the problem with creationism lies in its epistemic inaccessibility, as it is a theory with weak explanatory capacity that has been superseded by Darwinian evolution. Thus, the exclusion of creationism from the science classroom is not grounded in its religious character, but rather in a set of epistemic shortcomings, which are shared by other fully secular pseudoscientific theories. In the same way that religion is not special as a legal-political category under Laborde’s analysis, creationism in the curriculum should not be treated as special either.
... 16 Dembski usiłował później wzmocnić swoje stanowisko, posiłkując się teorematami "nic za darmo" (no free lunch) i argumentując, że ślepe mechanizmy nie potrafią tworzyć CSI, a tylko przemycają informację zawartą w starannie dobranych krajobrazach przystosowania (fitness landscapes). 17 Również w tym argumencie da się dostrzec liczne podstawowe błędy. 18 Krótko mówiąc, Dembski oraz cały ruch ID nie opracowali niczego, co chociaż w przybliżeniu stanowiłoby ścisłą metodę wykrywania projektu -mają oni tylko mgliste intuicje, które mogą wydawać się trafne co najwyżej ze zdroworozsądkowego punktu widzenia. ...
Taner Edis argumentuje, że choć teoria inteligentnego projektu w dużej mierze po prostu powtarza błędy dawno zdyskredytowanego tradycyjnego kreacjonizmu, część jej twierdzeń może mieć znaczenie dla rozwoju nauki. Edisowi chodzi o twierdzenia, dotyczące natury inteligencji i wykrywania projektu. Mimo iż jego zdaniem nie są one słuszne, zdanie sobie sprawy, dlaczego tak jest, może pomóc naukowcom w dostrzeżeniu, w jak wielkim stopniu współczesna nauka ma charakter interdyscyplinarny, a to mogłoby przyśpieszyć rozwiązanie jednego z najbardziej fundamentalnych problemów naukowych, jakim jest kwestia pochodzenia informacji.
... First, at low resolution, it may never be possible to determine the correct helical symmetry (14) for a filament or tube. Second, although the bacterial flagellum has been a model for Creationists of "irreducible complexity" showing that the flagellum could never have evolved (32), it actually serves as a beautiful system for studying evolution (33). In response to the innate immune surveillance that vertebrates developed to recognize pathogenic bacteria, e Proteobacteria such as C. jejuni and H. pylori compensated for mutations in the TLR5 recognition site that destabilize the flagellar filament by developing outer domain interactions that stabilize these filaments. ...
Significance
Flagella are used by many pathogenic bacteria not only for motility but also for adhesion to host cells and to other bacteria in biofilm formation. Since thousands of copies of flagellin, the protein that forms the flagellar filament, are exposed on the surface of bacteria, they are a target for immune surveillance by hosts. Some bacteria important to human health, such as Campylobacter jejuni and Helicobacter pylori , have managed to evade the innate immune recognition of their flagellin. We show, with an atomic structure of the Campylobacter jejuni flagellar filament, how mutations that destabilize the filament in one region recognized by vertebrates have been compensated for by new contacts not seen in other flagellar filaments that would stabilize these filaments.
... In addition, the emphasis on random variations has generated the controversy with the advocates of Intelligent Design who argue that evolution based on random variations is statistically improbable, if not, indeed, impossible [86,87,88). They often invoke an assertion made by British astronomer Fred Hoyle that the random emergence of a cell is as likely as a Boeing 747 being created by a tornado sweeping through a junkyard. ...
... Such conflicting positions are listed in Perakh's essay [42]. In particular, one may note the position of Orr [37] regarding the NFL theorems, which was presented on the occasion of the publication of William Dembski's book [10]. Orr stated that: ...
The “No Free Lunch” theorem states that, averaged over all optimization problems, without re-sampling, all optimization algorithms perform equally well. Optimization, search, and supervised learning are the areas that have benefited more from this important theoretical concept. Formulation of the initial No Free Lunch theorem, very soon, gave rise to a number of research works which resulted in a suite of theorems that define an entire research field with significant results in other scientific areas where successfully exploring a search space is an essential and critical task. The objective of this paper is to go through the main research efforts that contributed to this research field, reveal the main issues, and disclose those points that are helpful in understanding the hypotheses, the restrictions, or even the inability of applying No Free Lunch theorems.
... This concept was introduced by William Dembski, one of the most active militants of ID. Dembski is a mathematician and theologian, as well as a Research Professor in Philosophy at the Baptist Theological Seminary of the Southwest, in Fort Worth (Texas), and the author of two of the 'horse battle' books of ID: Intelligent Design (Dembski 1999) and No Free Lunch (Dembski 2002). As pointed out above, specified complexity depends on a theoretical value. ...
When scientific method is not scrupulously followed, we move from objective to subjective knowledge. An example is provided by theistic cosmogonies, such as, the so-called theory (hypothesis, in reality) of 'intelligent design' (ID). It claims adequacy with all of the criteria defining scientific theory, thus placing it on an equal footingwith evolutionism. Its motto can be summarised as 'evolution yes, but by divine design, not by natural selection'. In this paper, the author expounds some of the thermodynamic and biological arguments implying that ID is an intrinsically religious notion that does not meet any scientific requirements of and that simplyrepresents another attempt to make cynical use of science in favour of unscientific postulates.
... These processes, according to Stuart Kauffman, embody a "fourth law" of thermodynamics, which implies that systems far from equilibrium will generate order for free (Kauffman, 2000). William Dembski takes Kauffman to task in No Free Lunch, pointing out that self-ordered systems have no means of maintaining their order once formed and "evolutionary algorithms, apart from careful fine-tuning by a programmer, are no better than blind search and thus no better than pure chance" (Dembski, 2002, p. 212). ...
... Many computational biology approaches have been proposed as "smart" algorithms for finding the "living" sequence, but as Dembski argues, all these programs-Weasel (Dawkins 1986), Ev, or Avida-smuggle in information that helps with the search (Dembski and Marks 2010). In fact, the "No Free Lunch" theorem proves that without prior information, there is no "smart" algorithm that can outperform a random search, which is where we started our discussion (Dembski 2002). ...
The triumph of Democritean materialism over biology in the 19th century was
tempered in the 20th by the discovery that time was not eternal and that life was too
complicated to spontaneously organize. This led to the paradox of assuming only
material causes for life’s origin while making them practically impossible. We address
this 150 year-old origin-of-life (OOL) problem by redefining it as an information
threshold that must be crossed. Since Shannon information has too little capacity to
describe life, we expand it to include time and correlated information. Generalized to
Einstein’s spacetime, we show that information capacity implies information flow, and
flows imply an “ether,” a material carrier. From recent discoveries of fossilized
microbial life on carbonaceous CI1 meteorites whose D/H ratios, albedo, and elemental
abundance are all cometary, we identify the material carrier with comets. With
sufficient cometary density, which we hypothesize may be supplied by the missing
galactic dark matter, non-linear correlations amplify the probability that comets can
assemble life from distributed information sources. If information is conserved, as
suggested by many cosmologists, then this distributed information source becomes the
boundary condition of the 4-sphere describing the Big Bang. Recent advances in
theoretical physics suggest that the assumption of the conservation of information
along with the conservation of energy are sufficient to derive Newton’s laws, making
materialism a corollary of information, and the OOL a trivial result of imposed Big
Bang boundary conditions as transmitted through the cometary hydrosphere.
... Son precisamente los fenómenos de complejidad irreducible los que llevan a sus defensores a postular la acción de Dios para salvar los fenómenos "desde dentro", es decir, en el plano mismo de la explicación biológica. Sólo esa intervención divina en las dinámicas naturales permitiría explicar órganos como el flagelo bacteriano, la estructura de una célula eucariota o el ojo, cuya ventaja evolutiva estaría asociada a un recorrido previo lento, gradual y privado de función útil -extremadamente improbable, por tanto (véase: Behe, 1996;Dembski, 2006). La teoría del diseño inteligente constituye el resultado de una reflexión incisiva e ingeniosa. ...
Resumen: En esta contribución me interesaré por una de las vías maestras de la investigación a partir de la revolución científica (el reduccionismo ontológico) y, en particular, por una de sus modalidades (el reduccionismo ontológico interteórico) para mostrar su conexión con la postura monista. Seguidamente expondré los motivos por los cuales estimo que el monismo irrestricto constituye una vía epistémica muerta y pondré en valor su única variante que considero fundamentada: el monismo nouménico. Palabras clave: Método científico, reduccionismo ontológico, monismo nouménico, Galileo, Darwin, Freud. Abstract: This paper will focus upon one of the chief methods of research after the scientific revolution (ontological monism) and in particular on one of its modalities (intertheoretical ontological reductionism) in order to demonstrate its links with the monistic thesis. I will then go on to explain the reasons which lead me to consider irrestrict monism as a tool without epistemological value and I will emphasize the only version I think well founded: noumenic monism. Keywords: Scientific method, ontological reductionism, noumenic monism, Galileo, Darwin, Freud. Recibido: 07/02/2013 Aprobado: 18/04/2013
... We can use the universal probability bound (UPB), which is a method of objectively measuring the plausibility of any probabilistic hypothesis. [12][13][14] The UPB addresses the question of how many chances have particles had to interact since the Big Bang. The value of is calculated by taking into account three factors: ...
According to some hypotheses, from a statistical perspective the origin of life seems to be a highly improbable event. Although there is no rigid definition of life itself, life as it is, is a fact. One of the most recognized hypotheses for the origins of life is the RNA world hypothesis. Laboratory experiments have been conducted to prove some assumptions of the RNA world hypothesis. However, despite some success in the ‘wet-lab’, we are still far from a complete explanation. Bioinformatics, supported by biomathematics, appears to provide the perfect tools to model and test various scenarios of the origins of life where wet-lab experiments cannot reflect the true complexity of the problem. Bioinformatics simulations of early pre-living systems may give us clues to the mechanisms of evolution. Whether or not this approach succeeds is still an open question. However, it seems likely that linking efforts and knowledge from the various fields of science into a holistic bioinformatics perspective offers the opportunity to come one step closer to a solution to the question of the origin of life, which is one of the greatest mysteries of humankind. This paper illustrates some recent advancements in this area and points out possible directions for further research.
... Thus, it settles the rising fact that there is an associated valuable niche market and prospective benefit around the application of these specific approaches within the context of project control applications. Nevertheless, this does not mean metaheuristic computing must be disregarded, because depending on nature of raw data and No Free Lunch Theorem [44], could be still a valuable approach for some kind of problems. ...
Project monitoring and control by using key performance indicators has become a widespread method for decisionmaking
in project-oriented organizations. However, the current schools and IT tools created for this purpose require an
upgrade in design due to imprecision, vagueness or uncertainty present in the raw data and changing conditions in
management styles. Moreover, the use of proprietary technologies in developing nations represents high costs for
governments and obstacles to achieving its technological sovereignty. This paper studies the trends and challenges in
project control through computational intelligence methods. It also examines schools and technological tools to
manage projects, as well as open source software for the application of computational intelligence techniques over
the past decades. Current tendencies and improvement areas, valuing niche markets with high applicability around
the thematic goal it is also analyzed. The contribution of this study is related to the predicted necessity of constructing
new models and IT tools for project control which integrate machine learning-based approaches and treatment of
imprecision, vagueness or uncertainty in the information, using key performance indicators linked to fundamental
knowledge areas. The implementation of new libraries for learning evaluation in project control with open source
software tools, opens a field of research related to increase technological integration with IT project management tools.
The content under discussion provides support to improve decision-making in project-oriented organizations.
Life increasingly is understood in terms of information. I consider two attempts to formulate life in terms of mathematical information theory. G. J. Chaitin proposes to define life in terms of the relation between organization and algorithmic compressibility in biological information. More recently, William Dembski, Winston Ewart, and Robert J. Marks suggest that Dembski’s notion of specified complexity can be mathematically expressed in information-theoretic terms through the concept of algorithmic specified complexity. The mathematical approaches are similar and in both cases essentially dependent on the concept of randomness deficiency in algorithmic information theory: to subtract out the degree of randomness from an informational measure, yielding a remainder of organization (Chatin) or specified complexity (Dembski, Ewart, and Marks). I argue that these attempts must fail due the information-theoretic indistinguishability of organization and randomness. The failure is instructive, however, because it illustrates the inability of mathematical information theory to register biological organization.
in the year 1859, the birth of Evolution took place. It was during this time that Darwin unveiled his renowned work, The Origin of Species. Ever since its emergence, influential scientific communities have propelled it to the forefront of media and education. Many debates were waged between the so- called evolutionists, including Darwin, Huxley, Hegel, and others, who wholeheartedly embraced the philosophy of evolution as a unified doctrine, and those who later came to be known as creationists. The later group, which constitutes the majority, firmly believes in the existence of a Creator who fashioned the universe and governs it with meticulous planning and boundless power.
Since then, evolution has persisted as a staple subject in public schools and has been presented as an indisputable reality in the media, aptly termed "evolutionary facts."
From a scientific perspective, how does one define evolution in comparison to the alternative concept of creation? And where does intelligent design fit into this equation?
This book is a trial to give some analysis for such questions and much more.
Intelligent Design (ID) argues for the existence of a designer, postulating it as a theoretical entity of a scientific theory aiming to explain characteristics in nature that seems to show design. However, the Scientific Realism debate argues that to accept that a scientific theory is successful is not enough for asserting the existence of the entities postulated by it. Typically, theories must show successful novel predictions. Evolutionists attack ID by offering cases of bad design, like the inverted retina of vertebrates. ID defenders assert the inversion of the retina must be a detail of design for a function already unknown. Recently it has been found such a function, and ID defenders celebrate it as a triumph over evolutionists. The retina case is a good candidate for a novel prediction. In this paper, I analyze whether this is the case.
Anti-scientific misinformation has become a serious problem on many fronts, including vaccinations and climate change. One of these fronts is the persistence of anti-evolutionism, which has recently been given a superficially professional gloss in the form of the intelligent design movement. Far from solely being of interest to researchers in biology, anti-evolutionism must be recognized as part of a broader campaign with a conservative religious and political agenda. Much of the rhetorical effectiveness of anti-evolutionism comes from its reliance on seemingly precise mathematical arguments. This book, the first of its kind to be written by a mathematician, discusses and refutes these arguments. Along the way, it also clarifies common misconceptions about both biology and mathematics. Both lay audiences and professionals will find the book to be accessible and informative.
Bu makale Tanrı’nın varlığını kanıtlamak üzere öne sürülen teistik argümanlardan biri olan, akıllı tasarım kanıtının tikel bir örneğini konu edinmektedir. Akıllı tasarım kanıtı, evrim kuramı ile karşıtlık içerisinde, din ve bilim arasındaki tartışmalarda merkezi bir öneme sahiptir. Bu çerçevede makalenin ele aldığı problem, Dembski’nin mekansal düzenliliklere dayalı olan tasarım argümanının geçerliliği ve ikna ediciliğidir. Tasarım argümanlarının hem tarihsel hem de çağdaş verisyonları ağırlıklı olarak mekansal düzenlilikleri konu edinmektedir. Bununla birlikte, evrim kuramının bilim ve felsefe çevrelerinde yaygın kabul görmesiyle, mekansal düzenliliklere dayalı tasarım argümanları ciddi biçimde eleştirilmiştir. Bu bağlamda, makalenin amacı, mekansal düzenliliklere dayalı tasarım argümanlarının çağdaş bir örneğini felsefi bakımdan incelemek ve evrim kuramı kaynaklı itirazlara karşı gücünü koruyup koruyamadığını belirlemektir. Çalışmada nitel veri toplama yöntemlerinden literatür incelemesi kullanılmış, elde edilen veriler tutarlılık ve savunulabilirlik açısından felsefi değerlendirmeye tabi tutulmuştur. Din felsefesi, bilim ve din bağlamındaki tartışmalarda hayli kapsamlı bir yer tutan bu konu, Dembski’nin kanıtı ve ona yöneltilen itirazlar ile sınırlandırılmıştır. Bu çalışmanın sonucunda, Dembski’nin mekansal düzenliliklere dayalı tasarım argümanının evrim kuramı kaynaklı eleştiriler karşısında yeterince ikna edici olmadığı savunulacaktır.
Various properties of the universe have been suggested as indicative of the work of ‘a designer’. I focus on two such properties: ‘fine-tuning’ and ‘the existence of orderly patterns of events which can be described by advanced mathematics’. While various forms of design inference have been suggested, for example, analogical, Bayesian, likelihoodist, and abductive, sceptics such as Roger Penrose objected that there could be alternative explanations which we still do not know of, while appealing to God can be used to solve any problem, so it is not helpful. This concern can be addressed by devising an original deductive argument which demonstrates that the following are the only possible categories of hypotheses—(i) Chance, (ii) Regularity, (iii) Combinations of Regularity and Chance, (iv) Uncaused, and (v) Design, and excluding all the alternative categories such that the conclusion of design follows logically (rather than being appealed to solve a problem). In response to the worry that previously unconsidered hypotheses could be lumped together in catch-all baskets, I show that there is an essential feature of each category (except design) which renders it unlikely as an explanation for the fine-tuning and order, beginning with (i)–(iii) and engaging with the multiverse hypothesis and Smolin’s evolutionary hypothesis.
It is often argued both by scientists and the lay public that it is extremely unlikely for life or minds to arise spontaneously, but this argument is hard to quantify. In this paper I make this argument more rigorous, starting with a review of the concepts of information and entropy, and then examining the specific case of Maxwell's demon and how it relates to living systems. I argue that information and entropy are objective physical quantities, defined for systems as a whole, which allow general arguments in terms of physical law. In particular, I argue that living systems obey the same rules as Maxwell's demons.
Some Muslim thinkers argue against evolution using intelligent design (ID) arguments. One possible impetus for this line of reasoning is the several indications of design mentioned throughout the Qurʾān. Therefore, criticizing ID could be seen as a direct attack on the Qurʾānic outlook. However, this article will argue that this is a false equation. The Qurʾānic design argument, as articulated in the tradition of Sunnī scholastic theology (kalām), argues for the existence of a supernatural God by acknowledging natural causes that bring about designed phenomena in the universe. By contrast, Muslim thinkers who use ID to argue against evolution are arguing for the existence of a supernatural being through the supposed inability of science to explain designed phenomena through natural causes. Thus, there is a fundamental difference between the design outlook provided in the Qurʾān versus the arguments of ID. Accordingly, this article argues that critiquing ID does not undermine the design discourse of the Qurʾān.
This chapter develops a model for the compatibility of design and evolution as explanations, examining how the evidence from biology continues to support belief in design. It argues that we can save both the rationality of an intuitive design discourse and the rationality of seeing biological teleology as evidence of design, even when adopting an evolutionist view of biology. Design and evolution function as conjunctive explanations, so that the success of evolutionary explanations does not remove the explanatory power added by design. Potential objections to the model are considered, building on the traditional philosophical objections. One of these is the problem of natural evil, which has been seen as refuting all design-based views. I argue, however, that the combination of evolution and design that this book has developed can respond to all these concerns as well as any other theological approach, and may even help in better responding to the problem.
This book attempts to equip the reader with a holistic and accessible account of Islam and evolution. It guides the reader through the different variables that have played a part in the ongoing dialogue between Muslim creationists and evolutionists.
This work views the discussion through the lens of al-Ghazālī (1058-1111), a widely-known and well-respected Islamic intellectual from the medieval period. By understanding al-Ghazālī as an Ash’arite theologian, a particular strand of Sunni theology, his metaphysical and hermeneutic ideas are taken to explore if and how much Neo-Darwinian evolution can be accepted. It is shown that his ideas can be used to reach an alignment between Islam and Neo-Darwinian evolution.
This book offers a detailed examination that seeks to offer clarity if not agreement in the midst of an intense intellectual conflict and polarity amongst Muslims. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Science and Religion, Theology, Philosophy of Religion, Islamic Studies, and Religious Studies more generally.
Some features within the physical universe appear to be so well-ordered that they have been regarded as evidence of the existence of a supernatural being who has designed them. This history of the so-called design argument is millennia-long, and various formulations of the argument have been presented. In this paper, I explore one contemporary version of the design argument proposed by the Intelligent Design movement, and analyze its advantages and disadvantages in comparison to one of the most famous classical versions of the argument.
The failure of complex artificial intelligence (AI) systems seems ubiquitous. To provide a model to describe these shortcomings, we define complexity in terms of a system's sensors and the number of environments or situations in which it performs. The complexity is not looked at in terms of the difficulty of design, but in the final performance of the system as a function of the sensor and environmental count. As the complexity of AI, or any system, increases linearly the contingencies increase exponentially and the number of possible design performances increases as a compound exponential. In this worst case scenario, the exponential increase in contingencies makes the assessment of all contingencies difficult and eventually impossible. As the contingencies grow large, unexpected and undesirable contingencies are all expected to increase in number. This, the worst case scenario, is highly connected, or conjunctive. Contingencies grow linearly with respect to complexity for systems loosely connected, or disjunctive. Mitigation of unexpected outcomes in either case can be accomplished using tools such as design expertise and iterative redesign informed by intelligent testing.
Jednym ze współczesnych sporów światopoglądowych jest konflikt między materialistycznymi ewolucjonistami a zwolennikami projektu w przyrodzie. Co istotne, obie strony sporu twierdzą, że ich stanowiska mieszczą się w obszarze nauk przyrodniczych. Dyskusje toczą się już od ponad stu lat, lecz nie widać szans na ich zakończenie i uzyskanie jakiegoś konsensusu. Źródło takiego stanu rzeczy zdaje się leżeć w tym, że spór ten toczy się w rzeczywistości na płaszczyźnie filozoficznej. W artykule przytaczam argumenty za tym, że zarówno ewolucjonizm materialistyczny, jak i koncepcja inteligentnego projektu nie są teoriami naukowymi. Porównuję także pojęcia ewolucji i kreacji oraz pokazuję, że pojęcie kreacji nie jest pojęciem naukowym. Stwarzanie bowiem jest aktem Stwórcy, który nie jest bytem czasoprzestrzennym. Jego działania zatem nie mogą być badane metodami właściwymi dla nauk przyrodniczych.
Fine-tuning has received much attention in physics, and it states that the fundamental constants of physics are finely tuned to precise values for a rich chemistry and life permittance. It has not yet been applied in a broad manner to molecular biology. However, in this paper we argue that biological systems present fine-tuning at different levels, e.g. functional proteins, complex biochemical machines in living cells, and cellular networks. This paper describes molecular fine-tuning, how it can be used in biology, and how it challenges conventional Darwinian thinking. We also discuss the statistical methods underpinning fine-tuning and present a framework for such analysis.
gent Design an illusion is to consider it more than merely a mistaken concept. It is to describe it as a trick played on us by our own minds: by our perception, by our cognition, or by both. It's a mistake that is hard to avoid. As David Hume wrote, apparent design in nature has a "force like that of sensation"; and, as Dawkins writes, this illusion is "powerful," "beautiful," and "com-pelling." Other writers since at least the sixteenth century have said so as well. However, few if any have persuasively explained the illusion. I suggest that belief in Intelligent Design results from certain features of human thought that are naturally selected and, in most ways, well adapted. That is, the illusion is a product of evolution. As such, the illusion, though not insuperable, is inevitable. Dawkins similarly writes that the human brain almost seems "specifically designed to misunderstand Darwinism, and to find it hard to believe." I'll try to show that we are indeed so configured and that this is the case necessarily. The question I address is simple: Why is the notion of Intelligent Design as widespread as it is? Several contexts bear on the answer. One is a current political and religious movement that promotes Intelligent Design. The context that interests me, however, is more basic. It produces a bias in human perception, namely that the world is more like us than it really is. This bias is reflected in our interpretations of everything we see, hear, and otherwise experience. The context is a set of human mental capacities dedicated to locating and dealing with humans-and other complex animals-in an uncertain world. These traits cause all of us to search our world for things and events that are human, humanlike, or the results of human action, and to judge readily that we have found them. The bias in question is universal and deep-seated. Because it has been built into us by natural selection, it is involuntary and largely unconscious. One aspect of this bias is a sensitivity to apparent design, whether in arti-facts or in nature. This propensity to find design has long been documented in various societies.
Abstract: Although the formulation of the Principle of Sufficient Reason (prs) is a modern product and, therefore, distanced from medieval metaphysics , the present work intends to analyze how it is implicit in the proofs of God's existence elaborated by Thomas of Aquinas in the form of efficient causality, especially in the so called third way, ex possibili, et necessary, in which the contingency and finitude of the created entities is taken as fact. In the end, some points of convergence between Leibniz and Aquinas are indicated in the application of this principle as a methodological resource to argue in favor of the existence of God.
Resumen: Si bien la formulación del Principio de Razón Suficiente (PRS) es un producto moderno y, por lo tanto, distanciado de la metafísica medieval , el presente trabajo pretende analizar cómo éste se encuentra implícito en las pruebas de la existencia de Dios elaboradas por Tomás de Aquino bajo la forma de la causalidad eficiente, especialmente en la llamada tercera vía, ex possibili, et necessario, en la que se toma como hecho la contingencia y finitud de los entes creados. Al final, se señalan algunos puntos de convergencia entre Leibniz y Tomás de Aquino en la aplicación de dicho principio como recurso metodológico para argumentar en favor de la existencia de Dios.
* Universidad Intercontinental, México.
The consensus in philosophical and scientific circles is that physicalism is the most warranted position to adopt. With respect to the academic study of religion, physicalism underwrites two complementary approaches, one widely recognized and the other underappreciated in the field at large. While the cognitive science of religion (CSR) enjoys widespread recognition, the ethology of religion does not. This paper employs ethology to explain two submissive behaviours ritual practitioners often perform, that is, ocular aversion and rump presentation. Significantly, the means of submission reflect the practitioner’s perceptions of the intimidating agents’, e.g., deities’, organ of intimidation. As it is in the animal kingdom, so too in the religious imagination, dominant others, especially males, will use their eyes or their phalluses to intimidate.
Recently, Del Ratzsch proposed a new version of the design argument. He argues that belief in a designer is often formed non-inferentially, much like perceptual beliefs, rather than formed by explicit reasoning. Ratzsch traces his argument back to Thomas Reid (1710-1796) who argues that beliefs formed in this way are also justified. In this paper, I investigate whether design beliefs that are formed in this way can be regarded as knowledge. For this purpose, I look closer to recent scientific study of how design beliefs are formed. I argue that the science strongly suggest that people easily form false beliefs. As a result, design beliefs can only constitute knowledge if subjects have additional reasons or evidence for design.
In this paper, I present Wittgenstein’s remarks on the structure of reason, drawing on the notions of “hinges” he developed in On Certainty. I then outline some of the unpalatable relativistic consequences that can be extracted by Wittgenstein’s epistemological views. Then, developing the similarities between Wittgenstein’s treatment of “hinges” and his views on metrology and religious beliefs, I aim to show that his remarks on the structure of reason, once correctly understood and developed, can help us to block rather than license relativistic conclusions. I argue that following Wittgenstein’s views on epistemology, we should be able to dismiss all the cases of apparent unsolvable disagreement between communities committed to radically different worldviews; this is so because, once seen in the light of his conception of the structure of reason, these disagreements are either solvable, as they are based on lack of knowledge and can thus be solved through education and training, or are mere pseudo-problems that stem from misguided comparisons between constitutively different language games and are thus the result of a misleading way of representing the nature and aim of our epistemic practices.
RESUM Quan no seguim escrupolosament el mètode científic, passem del coneixement objectiu al coneixement subjectiu. Un exemple d'aquest darrer és el de les cosmogonies teistes, com la teoria del disseny intel·ligent. En aquest article, l'autor presenta els orígens d'aquest moviment antidarwinista i argumenta per què és un intent més d'instrumentalitzar la ciència en favor de postulats acientífics. [Errades editorials al pdf, corregides per l'autor]
RESUMEN Cuando no seguimos escrupulosamente el método científico, pasamos del conocimiento objetivo al conocimiento subjetivo. Un ejemplo de este último es el de las cosmogonías teístas, como la teoría del diseño inteligente. En este artículo, el autor presenta los orígenes de este movimiento antidarwinista y argumenta por qué es un intento más de instrumentalizar la ciencia en favor de postulados acientíficos. [Erratas editoriales en el pdf, corregidas por el autor]
ABSTRACT When we do not follow scientific method scrupulously, we move from objective knowledge to subjective knowledge. An example of this is that of theistic cosmogonies, such as the theory of intelligent design. In this article, the author presents the origins of this anti-Darwinistic movement and argues why it is another attempt to make cynical use of science in favour of unscientific postulates. [Editing errata in the pdf file, corrected by the author]
The sciences are characterized by what is sometimes called a "methodological naturalism," which disregards talk of divine agency. In response to those who argue that this reflects a dogmatic materialism, a number of philosophers have offered a pragmatic defense. The naturalism of the sciences, they argue, is provisional and defeasible: it is justified by the fact that unsuccessful theistic explanations have been superseded by successful natural ones. But this defense is inconsistent with the history of the sciences. The sciences have always exhibited what we call a domain naturalism. They have never invoked divine agency, but have always focused on the causal structure of the natural world. It is not the case, therefore, that the sciences once employed theistic explanations and then abandoned them. The naturalism of the sciences is as old as science itself.
During the last 20 years, the theory of intelligent design (ID) has been causing a stir in the science-and-religion field. According to ID, it is possible to empirically detect signs of divine action in the world. One of the most prominent advocates of ID has been William A. Dembski, who describes ID as a threefold enterprise: (1) a scientific research programme, (2) an intellectual movement challenging naturalism, and (3) a way of understanding divine action. Recently, to the surprise of many, Dembski announced his retirement from ID. In this article, I assess the success of Dembski’s project from the above three perspectives.
Intelligent Design (ID) is an attempt to defend the idea that the order of nature bears marks of its Creator. This image of the concept has a historical root to ancient Greek philosophy. ID argues that science and theology support each other, when they are rightly understood. Under the influence of investigations of modern sciences –especially biology and cosmology- ID became the most serious battle in contemporary debates between theists and atheists. In this article, after an introduction for describing ID in general, Sober’s view point on the subject is described and criticized. Sober’s main claim is that ID is not testable and so should be rejected from scientific enterprise. In this article we show that (1) his notion of testability is not complete and (2) ID can satisfy the criterion with some considerations. His critics mainly underlie his notion of designer intervention in nature. The first response in this article, beyond the deductive proof for ID, can be supposed as a critic to methodological naturalism.
Evolutionary biologists who are also naturalists believe that natural selection is a purely causal interaction that follows basic rules discovered and understood by science. Hence, they believe that the evolution of humans from other organisms has a purely natural story that is really no different in kind from any other scientific account of the appearance and evolution of any other entity or process. However, a majority of the general population in the United States believes that the evolution of humans in fact requires supernatural intervention. This chapter takes a brief look at the history of the Western conflict between evolutionary biology and Christianity and then examines a contemporary argument for why hypothesizing the creation of humans without also positing the existence of some supernatural being is a mistake. It closes by recounting the most recent skirmishes in the United States regarding how evolution should be articulated and understood in the public arena, and tries to answer the question of whether or not evolution is a scientific theory.
Die Wirkung der Evolutionstheorie auf die wissenschaftliche Betrachtung der biologischen und kulturellen Geschichte der Menschheit und ihrer Varietäten muss vor dem Hintergrund vorevolutionärer Konzepte betrachtet werden. Dabei sind insbesondere die Gegentheorien des Monogenismus und Polygenismus sowie das Bild der Kette der Lebewesen relevant. Sie reichen in der Geschichte weit zurück. Die Genealogie der Menschheit wurde im Mittelalter gemäß der Genesis von den Söhnen Noahs abgeleitet. Im Zuge der frühneuzeitlichen Begegnungen mit dem nicht-christlichen Westafrika und den Heiden der Neuen Welt wurden die Stämme Japhets, Shems und Hams konsequent mit den Bewohnern der Erdteile Europa, Asien und Afrika identifiziert. Die »Entdeckung« der Amerinder fügte eine weitere Menschenvarietät hinzu. Sie führte zu einer polygenetischen Theorie, die der dominanten Annahme einer einheitlichen Schöpfung des Menschen widersprach. Isaac La Peyrère wagte nämlich die Hypothese, dass es sich bei den Amerindern um die Abkömmlinge einer ersten Schöpfung Gottes handle — um Präadamiten (Praeadamitae, 1655).
Methodological naturalism, the exclusion of the supernatural from the natural sciences, has drawn critique from both proponents of Intelligent Design and some philosophical naturalists who argue that the methods of science can also be used to evaluate supernatural claims. One principal objection to methodological naturalism has been what I call the truth seeking objection. In this article I develop an understanding of methodological naturalism capable of answering the truth seeking objection. I further also argue that methodological naturalism as a convention of science can be best defended by abandoning scientism. In this way methodological naturalism can be reconnected to the original theistic context in which it was first developed.
In scientific literature it is common to make equivalence between the socalled argument from design and the fifth way of Thomas Aquinas. It is commonly assumed that both demonstrations for the existence of God are based on the concept of finality to proof the need for an intelligent being capable of causing order in nature. However, we think that the differences between the two arguments have great significance: each of them has as a starting point a different type of order, they are based on a different kind of finality, and the way in which they use the principle of causality is also different. We believe that such differences permit us to say that the two arguments are not at all comparable and may even be seen as opposite arguments.
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