[Osx-nutters] The separation of church and state.

[Stefano Mori]

On 2007-Dec-04, at 06:56, Mark Smith wrote:

> On 03.12.2007, at 22:28, Stefano Mori wrote:
>
>> The one point where the ID people have a valid criticism, is the
>> question of whether the universe is old enough for so much
>> "creativity" to have happened with only a series of minor Oopses.
>
> There is nothing valid about this whatsoever. At what rate would one
> expect your "creativity" to occur ? How many many oopses would be
> required ? etc. etc. etc.
>
> You are falling into the creationists trap. This is how they win the
> hearts and minds of folks who are insufficiently "scienitifc".


I don't know if Sir Fred Hoyle is insufficiently scientific?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle


Published in his 1982/1984 books Evolution from Space (co-authored  
with Chandra Wickramasinghe), Hoyle calculated that the chance of  
obtaining the required set of enzymes for even the simplest living  
cell was one in 1040,000. Since the number of atoms in the known  
universe is infinitesimally tiny by comparison (1080), he argued that  
even a whole universe full of primordial soup would grant little  
chance to evolutionary processes. He claimed:
The notion that not only the biopolymer but the operating program of a  
living cell could be arrived at by chance in a primordial organic soup  
here on the Earth is evidently nonsense of a high order.
Hoyle compared the random emergence of even the simplest cell to the  
likelihood that "a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble  
a Boeing 747 from the materials therein." Hoyle also compared the  
chance of obtaining even a single functioning protein by chance  
combination of amino acids to a solar system full of blind men solving  
Rubik's Cube simultaneously.[1]


And this is despite him being an Atheist.

I don't know if he's right, just that he's thought about it and there  
is some merit to the argument.

Stefano



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