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Posts Tagged ‘miller’

What purpose?

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Shalini got me thinking on a point that keeps coming up when dealing with liberal, or at least, evolution-accepting Christians. And that is, how do they reconcile a “purposeless” and “heartless” process of evolution (Dr. Kenneth Miller’s words, quoted from Shalini’s article), with a teleological (or purposeful) universe?

Now they can go to the “God works in mysterious ways” argument, but that doesn’t really ever answer anything (how many people are atheists today because of that answer).

Or there’s “God can intervene (directly) in evolution”, but that violates the whole naturalistic basis of science. For this argument to be true, there would have to be evidence of some evolutionary change that couldn’t have come about naturally. Since that evidence doesn’t exist (although unlikely, it is a possibility), god likely hasn’t intervened (here absence of evidence is evidence for absence).

Another theistic view could be that “God intervenes in the universe, guiding natural events which lead to selection pressures which lead to us” sort of far-fetched view, but once again, there’s a lack of evidence of intervention (mind you we have less overall knowledge beyond our planet), and at most this could be characterized as a god-of-the-gaps argument.

Also, one could argue that “God set the universe in such a state that humans would evolve in their current state”. This is more of the enlightenment deistic god, and certainly not the Catholic God that Dr. Miller is praying to. Nevertheless, it’s still unlikely to physicists like Dr. Victor Stenger who argues that the universe was at maximum entropy at the Big Bang, and therefore could retain no information from before creation.

Perhaps God really just didn’t know what he was doing and just arbitrarily created a universe hoping something like us would show up, and he got lucky (this time). But if this is the case, why even make up a god?

Where is the “theo” in biology textbooks?

Monday, August 25th, 2008

One thing I’ve realized after years of following the ID movement is that William Dembski can best be described as a gift that keeps on giving. Take a look at this, for example:

Here are some quotes from seven of Miller’s biology textbooks, textbooks underwritten with your tax dollars. As you read these quotes, ask yourself where is the “theo” in Miller’s “theoevo.”(1) “[E]volution works without either plan or purpose … Evolution is random and undirected.”
Biology, by Kenneth R. Miller & Joseph S. Levine, pg. 658 (1st edition, Prentice Hall, 1991)

…(6) “Darwin knew that accepting his theory required believing in philosophical materialism, the conviction that matter is the stuff of all existence and that all mental and spiritual phenomena are its by-products. Darwinian evolution was not only purposeless but also heartless–a process in which the rigors of nature ruthlessly eliminate the unfit. Suddenly, humanity was reduced to just one more species in a world that cared nothing for us. The great human mind was no more than a mass of evolving neurons. Worst of all, there was no divine plan to guide us.”
Biology: Discovering Life, by Joseph S. Levine & Kenneth R. Miller (1st edition, D.C. Heath and Co., 1992), pg. 152

Dembski is terribly wrong on so many counts that he has to be either terribly ignorant or is simply obfuscating the facts to pander to his religious base. By asking where is the “god speak” in a biology textbook, Dembski has shown us (yes, old news) that ID is all about shoving god into science and down the throats of children, destroying science education in the process. What Dembski did not realize is that there is no “god talk” nor “atheist talk” in the theory of evolution itself because  the theory does not make any claim whatsoever about the existence or non-existence of a god. God isn’t mentioned in the description of the theory of gravitation, yet we don’t see IDists demanding to know where the “theo” is in gravity. There is no mention of religion in the weather forecast either and no ID creationist so far has claimed that god should be involved in the description of weather cycles.

Although Miller is a devout Catholic, he keeps his personal religious views out of the way in a scientific textbook. This has nothing to do with Miller accepting or rejecting the theistic god. He is merely writing about the theory of evolution the same way that someone would write about the theory of gravitation. Religion simply has nothing to do with it, and this is the very idea that Dembski refuses to comprehend. The IDists want to shove their narrow, fundamentalist version of religion into science, and they do not understand why current science textbooks do not read like the Bible. Once god is pushed into science, what next? Oh, and which god? Whose interpretation of what holy book? Fred Phelps’ version? Will kids be forced to learn about Yahweh creating man from dust? Will they also learn about Zeus shooting thunderbolts from the sky? Where are we to draw the line?

Of course, Miller is free to talk about his religious beliefs and publish popular books about what he thinks the role of his religion plays in science, the same way Richard Dawkins can promote the idea that evolution is incompatible with theistic belief. No matter how much Ben Stein would like you to think otherwise, nobody is trying to persecute and ‘expel’ Miller for his theistic evolutionary views. Evolutionary theory is discussed in science textbooks without “god-speak” because there is no need to invoke a supernatural being to explain scientific concepts. If Dembski wants Miller to include the “theo” in evolution, he should push for “theo” to be introduced in every scientific field and in every other area of study as well, to replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God.

Wait – that is the Wedge Strategy. The IDists actually do want to do that after all.

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.