There are some quotes from the complexity evolutionist Stuart Kauffman (2004, Prolegomenon to a General Biology, in Debating Design by Dembski and Ruse p166 & 172) that are worth remembering next time someone says ID and Creationism are just pseudo-science. Kauffman recognises complexity, but says nature is 'self organised' and he hopes that science will develop a fourth law of thermodynamics to account for such apparent 'self organisation,' as a naturalistic explanation for complexity. Kauffman is here assuming the truth of the thing he wishes to prove, and Behe's work on Irreducible Complexity is a direct challenge to Kauffman.
Kauffman says "The hoped-for fourth law of thermodynamics for such self-constructing systems will be that they tend to maximinse their dimensionality, the number of types of events that can happen next."p172
However, the Universal Probability Bound as highlighted by William Dembski shows that there are universal limits to 'what can happen next.' Many biological systems exceed the Universal Probability Bound by massive margins.
Kauffman perhaps recognises the problem. He comments; "And astonishingly, we need stories. If as I suggest, we cannot prestate the configuration space, variables, laws, initial and boundary conditions of a bioshpere, if we cannot foretell a biopshere, we can, nevertheless, tell the stories as it unfolds. Biospheres demand their Shakespeares as well as their Newtons. We will have to rethink what science is itself. And C.P.Snow's "two cultures," the humanities and science may find an unexpected, inevitable union.' p172
Kauffman says "We do not understand evolution...The strange thing about evolution is that everyone thinks he understands it."p166
Kauffman says "The hoped-for fourth law of thermodynamics for such self-constructing systems will be that they tend to maximinse their dimensionality, the number of types of events that can happen next."p172
However, the Universal Probability Bound as highlighted by William Dembski shows that there are universal limits to 'what can happen next.' Many biological systems exceed the Universal Probability Bound by massive margins.
Kauffman perhaps recognises the problem. He comments; "And astonishingly, we need stories. If as I suggest, we cannot prestate the configuration space, variables, laws, initial and boundary conditions of a bioshpere, if we cannot foretell a biopshere, we can, nevertheless, tell the stories as it unfolds. Biospheres demand their Shakespeares as well as their Newtons. We will have to rethink what science is itself. And C.P.Snow's "two cultures," the humanities and science may find an unexpected, inevitable union.' p172
Kauffman says "We do not understand evolution...The strange thing about evolution is that everyone thinks he understands it."p166
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