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Intelligent Design, Modern Science

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Title: Intelligent Design, Modern Science


1
Intelligent Design, Modern Science Your
Grandchildrens Future
  • Will the Bible be relevant in 2050?
  • Will Darwinism be relevant in 2050?

2
TNPC ID Blog Current Topics
  • Father Jonathan from Fox News
  • Where does ID belong science or philosophy
    class?
  • ID in the IEEE
  • Optical design tips from a butterfly
  • Send submissions to me at john.dishman_at_comcast.net
  • PLEASE PASS THE CLIPBOARD, MARK YOUR ATTENDANCE

3
Proposed Schedule
Week 7 History of science part 2 including biology physics paradigm shifts
Week 8 Difficulties with Darwinism Icons of Evolution video (51 minutes-start at 909!!)
Week 9 Answers to objections to ID
Week 10 Interpretations of Genesis Analogical Framework views
Week 11 Interpretations of Genesis Day-Age Traditional 6 Consecutive 24 Hour Day views
4
Icons of Evolution Reactions
  • Haeckels Embryos
  • Darwins Finches
  • Darwins Tree of Life
  • Four-Winged Fruit Flies
  • Homology in Vertebrate Limbs
  • Miller-Urey Experiment

5
Father Jonathan
  • Example of attempts to compromise with evolution
  • Believes in ID, but thinks its not science
  • Highly critical of Judge Jones
  • Thinks both ID neo-Darwinism should be taught
    in philosophy class, not science class
  • But there are no philosophy classes in high
    school
  • Buys into NAS definition of science
  • Breaking news another ID defeat in Ohio
  • State school board reverses itself bans
    critical thinking when it comes to evolution

6
ID in the IEEE
  • In the butterfly Princeps nireus, skylight is
    captured in its wings converted into blue-green
    light loved by females, through fluorescence.
  • Ordinarily half the light lost goes back into
    wings
  • In P. nireus, each wing scale has a 3 layer
    mirror known as a distributed Bragg reflector at
    its base
  • Results in constructive interference that
    redirects outward avoiding loss
  • However, some light still gets trapped at the
    surface
  • To compensate for this P. nireus employs a
    photonic crystal consisting of hollow tubes
    perpendicular to the Bragg reflector

7
Distributed Bragg Reflector Principles
8
One-PhotonHolographic Lithography
D. N. Sharp et al., Opt. Quant. Elec. 34, 3
(2002)
10µm
huge volumes, long-range periodic, fcc
latticebackfill for high contrast
9
MIT vs Princeps Nireus
Butterfly 2 MIT 1
Note the elaborate technology needed by MIT
engineers to fabricate the structure already
found in the butterfly. As the caption says it
looks like intelligent design.
10
Objections to ID
  • Objection 1 The design in nature appears to be
    less than optimal

11
From PBS Evolution
An intelligent designer, working with the
components of this wiring, would choose the
orientation that produces the highest degree of
visual quality. No one, for example, would
suggest that the neural connections should be
placed in front of the photoreceptor cells --
thus blocking the light from reaching them --
rather than behind the retina.
Incredibly, this is exactly how the human retina
is constructed. Visual quality is degraded
because light scatters as it passes through
several layers of cellular wiring before reaching
the retina. Granted, this scattering has been
minimized because the nerve cells are nearly
transparent, but it cannot be eliminated because
of the basic design flaw. Moreover, the effects
are compounded because a network of vessels,
which is needed to supply the nerve cells with a
rich supply of blood, also sits directly in front
of the light-sensitive layer, another feature
that no engineer would propose.
12
The Human Retina
  • Humans rods/cones behind nerves blood vessels
  • Octopus rods/cones in front of nerves blood
    vessels

13
Optimization in eye design requires tradeoffs
between
resolution
sensitivity
speed
14
Tradeoffs in the Design of the Eye
resolution
sensitivity
nerves in front of rods/cones
nerves in back of rods/cones
15
Eye Design
  • Placing transparent nerves blood vessels in
    front of rods/cones slightly reduces resolution
  • But, allows the sensitivity to light to be
    greatly increased i.e., allows much better night
    vision because of the provision of oxygen from
    blood vessels in low light
  • Some vertebrates with this wiring can detect a
    single incident photon

16
Eye design is only a small part of an overall
systems design space
  • Eye is part of the total human body design
  • Human body design is part of an local ecosystem
    design
  • Local ecosystem is part of the total world
    ecosystem
  • There are tradeoffs to be made all the way up
    down the chain

17
Suppose a King Kong really existed in an ecosystem
  • Not just Fay Ray would be affected by his
    presence!!
  • Note how well tuned is the overall system of
    plants, animals, geology, hydrology, etc. for
    life to thrive on earth

18
Objections to ID
  • Objection 1 The design in nature appears to be
    less than optimal
  • Answer optimal with respect to what?

19
Objections to ID
  • Objection 2 A wise powerful God wouldnt have
    done it this way.

The late Stephen J. Gould Professor of Geology
Zoology Harvard University
20
Says Gould
  • If God had designed a beautiful machine to
    reflect his wisdom and power, surely he would not
    have used a collection of parts generally
    fashioned for other purposes..Odd arrangements
    and funny solutions are proof of evolutionpaths
    that a sensible God would never tread but that a
    natural process, constrained by history, follows
    perforce. (from the book The Pandas Thumb)

Question is Goulds statement science or
theology?
Does his audience view him as scientist or
theologian?
21
Analyzing Goulds Statement
  • IF God has designed a beautiful machine..
  • Implication this is not a beautiful machine we
    live in, therefore no God.
  • surely, he would have.
  • Implication Gould knows how God would have done
    things
  • Odd arrangements funny solutions.(are) paths
    a sensible God would never tread
  • Trust me these arrangements, like the pandas
    thumb, are odd and non-sensible

22
Example the pandas thumb
  • The panda, unlike our North American bears,
    possesses a thumb that it uses to strip bamboo
    leaves off the shoots. This thumb is actually an
    extra digit made by the extension of the radial
    sesamoid bone in the wrist. Because this is not
    the typical way a thumb is formed, Gould
    concludes that, "the panda must use parts on
    hand.... The sesamoid thumb wins no prize in an
    engineer's derby" but is the best solution
    evolution can find since the "true thumb is
    committed to another role (Boblin Anderson,
    JASA, March, 1983)

23
A Rebuttal (www.godandscience.org)
  • A new study analyzed the giant panda's thumb
    using computed tomography, magnetic resonance
    imaging (MRI) and related techniques. Contrary to
    what evolutionists have previously expressed
    about the "bad design," the current study shows
    that the radial sesamoid bone (its "thumb") is
    "one of the most extraordinary manipulation
    systems" among mammals.

24
Rebuttal Continued
  • Evolutionists say that the design of the
    Panda's thumb is bad compared to that of the
    primate opposable thumb. However, the opposable
    thumb is not designed for continuous grasping.
    Such kind of usage can result in carpal tunnel
    syndrome (just ask any laboratory technician who
    has been pipetting for many years). Being a
    herbivore, the Giant Panda spends nearly all of
    its waking hours eating. It collects bamboo
    leaves by grasping and stripping leaves from the
    stalks. Contrary to what the evolutionists say,
    the opposable thumb would be a bad design for the
    Panda, since it could not function under the
    stress of continuous use. The Panda's hand, with
    its "thumb" bound to the metacarpals, is a much
    stronger design able to withstand continuous use.

25
Pandas Thumb Conclusion
  • The radial sesamoid bone and the accessory carpal
    bone form a double pincer-like apparatus enabling
    the panda to manipulate objects with great
    dexterity.
  • The authors concluded their study with the
    following statement
  • "We have shown that the hand of the giant panda
    has a much more refined grasping mechanism than
    has been suggested in previous morphological
    models."
  • Endo, H., Yamagiwa, D., Hayashi, Y. H.,
    Koie, H., Yamaya, Y., and Kimura, J. 1999. Nature
    397 309-310.

26
Other Examples
  • To see how recent research has found deeper
    engineering design principles in structures
    criticized by evolutionists as beneath a
    sensible Designer, see
  • http//godandscience.org/evolution/designgonebad.h
    tml
  • a web site by Richard Deems associated with the
    Hugh Ross ministry Reasons to Believe

27
Pauls view of how God would have done it
  • Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and
    knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his
    judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
  • "For who has known the mind of the Lord,
  • or who has been his counselor?"
  • "Or who has given a gift to him
  • that he might be repaid?
  • For from him and through him and to him are all
    things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
  • Rom. 1133-36

Rembrandts Apostle Paul
28
Or putting it another way. ASLAN
IS NOT A TAME LION!!
29
Objections to ID
  • Objection 2 A wise powerful God wouldnt have
    done it this way.
  • Answer Says who?

The late Stephen J. Gould Professor of Geology
Zoology Harvard University
30
Objections to ID
  • Objection 3 ID is not science since it cant
    make predictions or be a basis for research,
    whereas Darwinism can

31
Ernst Mayer evolutionary biologist
The theory of natural selection can describe and
explain phenomena with considerable precision,
but it cannot make reliable predictions, except
through such trivial and meaningless circular
statements as, for instance The fitter
individuals will on the average leave more
offspring." Toward a New Philosophy of Biology
(1988) pp.31-32
In other words, Darwinism has no predictive power
either!
32
Dembskis Research Themes
  • Improving methods of detecting design
  • Determine the nature of biological information
  • What are the constraints on matter to handle
    biological information
  • What empirical grounds are there to show
    intelligence is indispensable for information
  • What is the minimal complexity required for
    functionality in biological systems
  • Some evolution exists. How much can be allowed
    before intelligence is required?

33
FootnoteJames Shapiro, opponent of ID
  • There are not detailed Darwinian accounts for
    the evolution of any fundamental biochemical or
    cellular system, only a variety of wishful
    speculations. It is remarkable that Darwinism is
    accepted as a satisfactory explanation for such a
    vast subjectevolutionwith so little rigorous
    examination of how well its basic theses work in
    illuminating specific instances of biological
    adaptation or diversity.

34
More Dembski Research Themes
  • Understand complex biological structures from an
    engineering perspective looking not only at
    functionality but also reliability,
    repairability, manufacturability, economy, etc
  • Apply the study of human technological evolution
    (using a tool called TRIZ) to biological systems
  • Was the intelligent designer programming the
    future of biological invention to be revealed
    over time, including for example the rise fall
    of dinosaurs?
  • Was the intelligent designer overcoming negative
    forces in his design program, for example, as a
    result of the Fall?

35
More Dembski Research Themes
  • Evolutionary computation.
  • The immune system runs an algorithmic program
    that detects, tracks, attacks invaders. Is
    such a program designed, or could it have evolved
    along with the environment? Simulation is
    needed.
  • Handling discontinuities.
  • Are the missing links (intermediates) in the
    fossil record real or imaginary. If real, the
    observed complexity in the biosphere requires
    huge coordination of matter information. How
    much it requires intelligent how much could be
    explained by natural forces?

36
Finally steganography hidden messages
  • Is there a user manual embedded in biological
    information? For example to tell proteins how to
    fold.
  • 1st order useful to the organism
  • 2nd order useful to the scientific researcher
    implanted by the designer to be discovered at the
    appropriate time to confirm intelligent design

37
Is steganography over the top?
  • The Old Testament prophets saw hidden, the day
    when the WORD would be incarnate and be The Way,
    showing men how to live
  • Perhaps a similar, but lesser, word lies at the
    heart of biological information.
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