Sun, Jul 06, 2008

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David N. Friedman


Not random

OK, Grant, thanks for conceding that the emergence of life was not random.  And thanks for asking where did the oxygen come from.

 The actual answer is not at all as simple as you suggest and without an atmosphere composed of nitrogen and oxygen, any oxygen that could be created by the tiny output of bacteria would be lost.  This ties into the existence of water and the question as to why our earth is 70% water.  The point here is that the pre-conditions for life (not to mention how life could have initially been created) are NOT a simple chemical reaction from bacteria (which is a life-form!!) creating an atmosphere?? huh?  Time is not at all a need commodity.  What is needed is many things happening together in a non-random way--a veritable coordination of dozens of pre-conditions that all came about, not merely one miracle but an entire cascade of miracles that produced an atmosphere, water and then oxygen-based life forms.  The bottom line question remains how many miracles does it take before you might see design at work? 

Investigators in Malibu this week are quickly convinced that the latest wildfires were set by humans--that is, designed and not natural.   Fires are very natural but investigators are quick to say that with only one pattern--it was not the natural way since they know humans are a possibility concerning the cause of a fire.  By contrast, to assess a supernatural event--the standard is far, far higher. Miraculous occurences may simply be random.  At some point, a series of miracles appears designed since faith in randomness cannot be unlimited.  The poor arsonist cannot defend himself by claiming that it was another natural fire when there is evidence of intervention.  I lack the faith in randomness to believe that so many factors all happened in the correct sequence in just the right way at just the right time.  It is not simply the luck of the draw.  It is too exquisite, too perfect to be random and natural.  This is the sensible conclusion of most people.  





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