Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Paul Copan: Inferring Design from Anti-Design

John Barrow calculated that the chances of moving from a bacterium to homo sapiens in 10 billion years or less is 10-24,000,000... [1] We’re not even addressing the origin of the universe ...whose chances of happening are exactly zero. Nor are we speaking of the fine-tuning of the universe (non-theist Roger Penrose calculates this as being one chance in 1010(123)).[2] Nor ...of getting the precise DNA sequence of the necessary 250 proteins to sustain life (whose chances have been calculated as 1 in 1041,000).[3] We are stacking such outrageously remote possibilities on top of more outrageously remote possibilities on top of still more.



So, if we’re surrounded by appearance of design (as atheists like Crick and Dawkins acknowledge), must we insist that it is only apparent design rather than genuine design?


... It seems to be pure philosophical prejudice—not scientific observation—that disqualifies design


Paul Cohen at Parchment and Pen has an insightful article useful to Christian apologists on the subject of design. See Inferring Design from Anti-Design Scientists

... and what does the denial of "apparent" design given the "appearance" of design say about all those who claim science is based simply on the evidence?

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