• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

A simple calculation shows why evolution is impossible

Bungle_Bear

Whoot!
Mar 6, 2011
9,084
3,513
✟262,040.00
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Married
You haven't told us what you measure or the units you use. All you have done is repeat that we can recognise design because of prior knowledge or indications of human agency.
 
Upvote 0

Speedwell

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2016
23,928
17,626
82
St Charles, IL
✟347,280.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Other Religion
Marital Status
Married
Yes, if something is produced intentionally it has intention and is therefore intentional. But what you are claiming is a method to measure and quantify that intention in objects not determined by the usual criteria to possess intention. What about it?
 
Upvote 0

Speedwell

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2016
23,928
17,626
82
St Charles, IL
✟347,280.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Other Religion
Marital Status
Married
And you know this because you observe that some diseases have not been weeded out. Where was your designer then?
 
Upvote 0

stevevw

inquisitive
Nov 4, 2013
15,806
1,695
Brisbane Qld Australia
✟317,787.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Private
You haven't told us what you measure or the units you use. All you have done is repeat that we can recognise design because of prior knowledge or indications of human agency.
But that prior knowledge about something that is designed is based on a criteria that we have set for it to be classed as design. That will depend on what we are looking at. So that is the measurement. This is more about algorithms to determine probabilities. Can a random process account for what we are seeing. Once again referring to the fine tuned argument can a random process produce the many physical conditions that fall within a tiny parameter as opposed to the many possible conditions that could have eventuated. If we roll a set of dice and they come up with a certain number 500 times in a row. The odds become too great to have happened by chance. It is not about measuring specified complexity itself but about showing it could not have happened by random chance and therefore the results are specified and also complex depending on what it is being measured.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0

stevevw

inquisitive
Nov 4, 2013
15,806
1,695
Brisbane Qld Australia
✟317,787.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Private
It is determined by the usual measurements as in probability.
 
Upvote 0

Speedwell

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2016
23,928
17,626
82
St Charles, IL
✟347,280.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Other Religion
Marital Status
Married
Which is the hindsight fallacy again. Getting the same number 500 times in a row is no less probable than getting any other specific sequence of 500 numbers.
 
Upvote 0

Speedwell

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2016
23,928
17,626
82
St Charles, IL
✟347,280.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Other Religion
Marital Status
Married
It is determined by the usual measurements as in probability.
But that is not how design is usually detected. As pointed out, design is detected by prior experience and indications of agency, not probability.
 
Upvote 0

Speedwell

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2016
23,928
17,626
82
St Charles, IL
✟347,280.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Other Religion
Marital Status
Married
What has that got to do with natural selection.
You claim that evolution is inadequate and postulate that therefore a designer must be involved. You suggest that an example of that inadequacy would the inability of the evolutionary mechanism to weed out many diseases. We observe that a disease (malaria, in this case) has not been weeded out, which supports your claim that evolution alone could not do it. But you only made the claim to justify your assertion that there is a designer as work in addition to evolution because evolution is inadequate. Where was your designer in the case of malaria? On vacation? Taking a nap?
 
Upvote 0

stevevw

inquisitive
Nov 4, 2013
15,806
1,695
Brisbane Qld Australia
✟317,787.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Private
Which is the hindsight fallacy again. Getting the same number 500 times in a row is no less probable than getting any other specific sequence of 500 numbers.
Not if that particular number was the one needed. Like with fine tuning or with proteins the specific criteria has to be a certain set of numbers and not any numbers. So for example the number 12 had to be thrown every time and there were no alternatives.
 
Upvote 0

stevevw

inquisitive
Nov 4, 2013
15,806
1,695
Brisbane Qld Australia
✟317,787.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Christian
Marital Status
Private
I think that is reading a lot more into things than I am saying. For one my questioning natural selection is not because a God did it but because there are legitimate non religious reasons for doing so as I have posted earlier. I question some that seem to attribute just about everything to natural selection and look at all change in life in adaptive terms. This is not supported by the evidence.

Secondly I don't deny natural selection is a factor and plays a role I just question its role. Third by linking God this way that is no different to someone saying where was God when the drunk man ran down a child or the hurricane blew a village away. If ID is to be supported by science then invoking that God somehow has to intervene and stop what are natural occurrences defeats the purpose.
 
Upvote 0

Speedwell

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2016
23,928
17,626
82
St Charles, IL
✟347,280.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Other Religion
Marital Status
Married
Which is just what you don't know. You got started on all this because you observed (quite correctly) that the probability of evolution producing exactly the biosphere we have now is vanishingly small. But it really doesn't matter.
 
Upvote 0

Bungle_Bear

Whoot!
Mar 6, 2011
9,084
3,513
✟262,040.00
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Married
You're all over the place. I was responding to your claim that we detect design by measuring specified complexity. When asked to explain how we do that and what units of measurement are used, you now say that we don't measure specified complexity, we perform a post hoc probability calculation.

1. Specified complexity is not a valid concept, but you're argument assumes that it is.
2. You cannot tell us how to measure this non-existent thing.
3. You want to perform post hoc probability calculations about the likelihood of this non-existent thing occurring.

Do you understand what those 3 points mean?
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0

Speedwell

Well-Known Member
May 11, 2016
23,928
17,626
82
St Charles, IL
✟347,280.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Other Religion
Marital Status
Married
I question some that seem to attribute just about everything to natural selection...
Plus variation, don't forget--otherwise you're knocking down a straw man.
...and look at all change in life in adaptive terms. This is not supported by the evidence.
Actually it is. What is at issue is the exact nature of the mechanism which produces variation.
 
Upvote 0

VirOptimus

A nihilist who cares.
Aug 24, 2005
6,814
4,422
54
✟258,187.00
Gender
Male
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Married

You only question the ToE because of your religious belief. You have posted this yourself on this very site.

Dont lie.
 
Upvote 0