Thursday, August 22, 2013

Wrong Question

A post dated 21st August on "Uncommon Descent" is entitled:

Question for evolutionists: “If fossils are actually young, would you find ID more believable?

My answer to that question is that the reasons for believing in ID don't change much if we add a few digits to the history of life Viz ~4000,000,0000 years instead of ~50,000 years. If we look at the relationship in my last post, Viz: 

Dg <= k log T + D0

....then we notice that the length, Dg, of algorithmically generated complex configs increases only slowly with the log of time T; so time doesn't make much difference. The crucial component is the length of the generating algorithm D0, which is probably in the order of a few thousand bits, and the selection therein of the right algorithm (Hence "specified complexity"??) amongst a huge space of possibilities that in the main very likely produce nothing of interest. The right algorithm may be relatively simple, but it is extremely rare nonetheless.

The author of this UD post is thinking in classic god-of-the-gaps mode: The bigger the gap then the stronger the rationale for a belief in God!

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