Did Intelligent Design have dimensional limits ?

From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Wed Feb 26 2003 - 21:38:57 MST

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    Science Frontiers, No. 146, Mar-Apr, 2003, p. 3

    BIOLOGY

    Did ID have dimensional limits?

    ID (for "Intelligent Design") is a hot topic in evolutionary philosophy.
    Some scientists, such as M.J. Behe and W.A. Dembski, exhibit many examples
    of what they term "irreducible complexity" in terrestrial life forms---
    biochemistry in particular. These, they claim, necessitated the
    application [of] intelligent design by some "unspecified" entity. ID
    opponents assert that natural, *random* processes and natural selection
    are sufficient to have created everything we now observe in our world,
    limited though it may be. But, *surprise,* hot as this subject may be,
    we [have a]nother species of fish to fry in this item.

    We have netted two intriguing articles from the *Creation Research Society
    Quarterly* that deserve the attention of anomalists and even the most
    fervent reductionists---whatever their philosophical predilections.

    In the first article, W.I. Sivertsen takes four criteria established by C.
    Sagan for the recognition of intelligent signals from space. These criteria
    are basic to the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project.
    The four criteria are:

       *Elegance;
       *Complexity;
       *Internal consistency; and
       *Possessing "utterly alien" characteristics

    Sivertsen applies these SETI criteria to DNA and finds that DNA easily meets
    them. We cannot deny that DNA is geometrically elegant, chemically complex,
    and possesses internal consistency. But is it "utterly alien?" Sivertsen
    so claims in these words:

       The fourth criterion raises several complex questions. Does "alien"
       mean another rational mind besides a human mind? If so, we would need
       ways to distinguish these non-human signals and to classify them as
       "intelligent." In the case of DNA, I submit that the *determinative*
       code relationships evident between codons, anticodons, and the amino
       acids in the resulting proteins are complex in a manner that is
       different or "alien" in comparison to the *symbolic* code relationships
       in human code systems.

    Sivertsen's conclusion, as one would expect, is that DNA is the product of an
    intelligent design.

    (Sivertsen, Walter I.; "SETI and DNA," *Creation Research Society Quarterly,*
    39:190, 2002.)

    In an earlier article in the same journal, J. Bergman and D.B. DeYoung make
    a similar case for intelligent design in the realm of subatomic particles---
    those fundamental [?] building blocks of matter. Although, they do not
    employ Sagan's exact terminology, we will do so as we mention some of their
    examples.

       *Elegance (the neat 8-fold way);
       *Complexity (the existence of over *500* different subatomic particles);
       *Internal consistency (the symmetry and conservation rules);
       *Utter alien-ness (dark matter, dark energy, etc.)

    Like Sivertsen above, these authors conclude that the subatomic realm was
    intelligently designed.

    (Bergman, Jerry, and DeYoung, Don B.; "Particle Physics and Paley's Watch,"
    *Creation Research Society Quarterly,* 39:73, 2002.)

    Comments. This is all intriguing, but intelligence is a human construct.
    Why should aliens be intelligent by our definition? They may be
    "more-than-intelligent" or "other-than-intelligent."

    SETI searches for electromagnetic messages from outer space. We have not
    heard any signals of this sort, but we *do* find amino acids in meteorites;
    maybe, eventually, we'll discover meteor-borne DNA, too. Perhaps amino
    acids and DNA *are* really messages from some intelligent entity---who need
    not be supernatural.

    We can also apply Sagan's four criteria to cosmology (*greater* dimensions
    than earth life) and, in the other direction, to whatever *smaller* "things"
    make up the subatomic particles.

    -- 
    Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
         Alternate: < fortean1@msn.com >
    Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
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