cofty

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Posts by cofty

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  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  Sea Breeze - Either you don't understand the 2014 article in Nature or you are deliberately misrepresenting it.

  There is not a single word in the article that even hints at the need for an external force or intelligence to account for complexity or design. The dissenting scientists could not possibly be more opposed to creationists and proponents of ID.

  The debate is about the mechanisms that account for unguided evolution. Did you even read the article?

  Here is the key paragraph...

  In our view, this ‘gene-centric’ focus fails to capture the full gamut of processes that direct evolution. Missing pieces include how physical development influences the generation of variation (developmental bias); how the environment directly shapes organisms’ traits (plasticity); how organisms modify environments (niche construction); and how organisms transmit more than genes across generations (extra-genetic inheritance). For SET, these phenomena are just outcomes of evolution. For the EES, they are also causes.
  

  Please don't be so crass as to reference articles in The Federalist as if it was serious journalism, let alone science.
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  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  Thank you for linking to Coyne's article on Quillette article TD. I actually read that when it was first published last month and forgot about it.
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  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  Apparently Donald D. Hoffman, a human being who is the result of an evolutionary process that has provided him with a series of illusions rather than an accurate take on reality (which does not actually exist), is using these illusions to make claims about the nature of reality (which he has previously claimed does not exist). - Steve Oberski (the comments section of Coyne's blog...)
  
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  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  Newtonian physics for example “worked” but was apparently not “true”.

  Yes it is. It just isn't the complete picture but for macro objects it is true. No scare quotes required.

  In a million years of progress it will still be a fact that extant species descended from earlier common ancestors by evolution.

  Jerry Coyne describes Hoffman's prognostications as ".. a mess, and seems a bit like a gemisch of quantum woo, evolutionary misunderstandings, and postmodernism."

  There is a huge market for po-mo obfuscation, obscurantism and woo woo.
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  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  Those who think that human rationality is the ultimate guide to truth need to do better than respond by saying, “that’s a stupid question”. - SBF

  Yes it is. Observe the astonishing progress since the enlightenment.

  Facts, evidence, reason, rationality works - The End.

  And yet another science thread is dragged through the mire of postmodern bullshit.
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  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  Creationism seems to be the Watchtower doctrine that a lot of ex-JWs find the most difficult to get over.

  If anybody actually manages to bring evidence against the fact of evolution a Nobel Prize awaits.

  Evolution is a Fact...
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  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  He gives an anecdote on how hard it would be to create just one new protein by chance

  His anecdote ignores protein functional redundancy. The key thing about a protein molecule is its physical shape which results from the sequence of amino acids which results in turn from the sequence of nucleic acids.

  The thing is there are many many possible sequences that result in an identical molecule. Taking just one example of Cytochrome C. The number of possible amino acid sequences that would result in a functional Cytochrome C protein molecule has been calculated to be a billion times larger than all the atoms in the known universe. And each one of those amino acid sequences could be built from vast numbers of alternative sequences of nucleic acids.

  All of these billions of billions of possible sequences results in a perfectly functional cytochrome C molecule.

  Now consider all the orders of magnitude of other possible sequences that would result in a cytochrome C molecule that works a little bit less efficiently than those we find in extant species.

  His argument is like somebody looking around a stadium of 100,000 people and asking what are the odds of these exact people being right here, each in their exact seat at this precise moment. They forget that countless other contingencies would have also resulted in a full stadium.

  Prof Gelernter to needs to stick to computers.
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  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  Evolution is a Fact...
• 
  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  I think much of Darwinian logic relies upon coding

  There is really no comparison beyond a bad analogy between computer coding and DNA.

  all of which has shown random mutation plus natural selection cannot generate new and complex creatures.

  That is nothing but a bald assertion. Only somebody who doesn't understand the basics or who has ideological religious motivations could say it.

  Evolution explains how an original complex creature gave rise to many other sorts of complex creatures. It explains this in astonishing detail.

  It does not explain how geochemistry became biochemistry. That is a whole different ball game.

  He gives an anecdote on how hard it would be to create just one new protein by chance

  Evolution has nothing at all to do with the origins of protein molecules. When people make this sort of objection to evolution you know that they have no interest in actual answers to real questions.

  All of the ideas of the Intelligent Design movement have been thoroughly destroyed by actual scientists. It is nothing but good old fashioned creationism in a new disguise trying to get around the First Amendment.
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  32

  Another Professor Renounces Darwinism

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  david gelernter, a famed yale university professor, has publicly renounced his belief in charles darwin’s theory of evolution, calling it a “beautiful idea” that has been effectively disproven.. article.

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  cofty

  A prof of computer science.

  His opinion of biology is as valid as his opinion on politics.

  Apparently he is impressed by the ramblings of Stephen Meyer - how embarrassing!