This recent post by Cornelius Hunter exemplifies, in one sentence, the special combination of arrogance and ignorance that creationists possess:
Random events are simply not likely to create profoundly complex, intricate, detailed designs.
Even if one is able to come up with a rigorous scientific definition of terms like "profoundly complex", "intricate", and "detailed", this is a remarkably arrogant claim. How does Hunter know this to be true?
The answer is, he doesn't; he just believes it because his religion demands it. And it isn't true: we have abundant evidence from the field of artificial life that the claim is false.
To look at just a single example, take the work of Karl Sims. He has shown that virtual creatures can evolve intricate and novel locomotion strategies by a process of mutation and natural selection. This 1994 video shows some of the behaviors that evolved.
There's a good reason why none of the principal ID creationists (Dembski, Behe, Berlinski, Hunter, Luskin, etc.) address the challenges to their claims posed by artificial life: the rebuttal is so devastating that they can find nothing to say.
Showing posts with label Cornelius Hunter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cornelius Hunter. Show all posts
Monday, December 26, 2011
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Cornelius Hunter on Parsimony
The creationist Cornelius Hunter has a post where he attempts to cast doubt on the evolution of placental mammals because he finds the current explanations too complicated. Science values parsimony, he says. This explanation is too complicated and hence we should doubt it.
I really wonder if Hunter has ever studied geology. Explanations for the current configuration of the earth are often extraordinarily complicated. Just study the geology of Idaho. Even the basement rock alone has a description as complicated as:
"The Albion and Pioneer Ranges contain metamorphic core complexes, which expose middle-crustal metamorphic rocks in the center, beneath younger sedimentary rocks along a low-angle normal fault. The Archean and Proterozoic metamorphic rocks contain gneiss and schist that originated as part of the Archean continental crust as well as Paleoproterozoic juvenile volcanic arc rocks. They have been subsequently metamorphosed and intruded, notably in Cretaceous, Eocene and Oligocene time. They are exposed today from Neogene regional extension of the Basin and Range Province."
Why is geology so complicated? Well, largely because it is contingent: it depends on many factors, such as the composition of the early earth. And that, in turn, depended on cosmic bombardment during the formation of the solar system. And that depended on a supernova event prior to the solar system. Add meteorite strikes from outer space, catastrophic floods, and the effects of continental drift and various orogenies, and you've got a recipe for complication.
Well, biology is like that, too. But it's even worse, since in biology we have imperfect self-replication together with contingency. Pretending that this is not likely to result in complex outcomes and a convoluted evolutionary history is an absurd fantasy.
I really wonder if Hunter has ever studied geology. Explanations for the current configuration of the earth are often extraordinarily complicated. Just study the geology of Idaho. Even the basement rock alone has a description as complicated as:
"The Albion and Pioneer Ranges contain metamorphic core complexes, which expose middle-crustal metamorphic rocks in the center, beneath younger sedimentary rocks along a low-angle normal fault. The Archean and Proterozoic metamorphic rocks contain gneiss and schist that originated as part of the Archean continental crust as well as Paleoproterozoic juvenile volcanic arc rocks. They have been subsequently metamorphosed and intruded, notably in Cretaceous, Eocene and Oligocene time. They are exposed today from Neogene regional extension of the Basin and Range Province."
Why is geology so complicated? Well, largely because it is contingent: it depends on many factors, such as the composition of the early earth. And that, in turn, depended on cosmic bombardment during the formation of the solar system. And that depended on a supernova event prior to the solar system. Add meteorite strikes from outer space, catastrophic floods, and the effects of continental drift and various orogenies, and you've got a recipe for complication.
Well, biology is like that, too. But it's even worse, since in biology we have imperfect self-replication together with contingency. Pretending that this is not likely to result in complex outcomes and a convoluted evolutionary history is an absurd fantasy.
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