It is interesting that I am writing this blog so soon after Richard Dawkins visited campus. This topic is actually something that I have thought about for a long time. Anybody who has taken a general biology course has heard the quote: “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” (Theodosius Dobzhansky – evolutionary geneticist). This statement remains controversial to this day ‘in light’ of the fact that we live in a largely religious world. The clash of creationism and evolution is something that I personally had an internal struggle with in my life. Being brought up in a Christian home I was taught that God created the ‘heavens and earth’ and formed them in the state they currently reside. In class I was taught that the current state of things was the product of billions of years of successive cause and effect. There are those that try to meet in the middle ground with the idea of Intelligent Design. However, in my life I have found that route ultimately unsatisfying. Why did God allow so much redundancy and some much ‘slop’ in biological processes and proteins if he was ‘directing’ the evolution of such? On the other hand, is it truly possible that evolution could have ‘selected’ for the thousands and thousands of protein interactions and a created such a complex system as the human psyche? These questions still remain, but ultimately I find myself choosing either one side or the other (sometimes depending on the day). The internal struggle continues…….
-Tyrell S.
1 comment:
Your question of "is it truly possible..." is a question that can be dissected into smaller questions, examined, and EVENTUALLY answered using the scientific method. And if the scientific method doesn't have a good track record for providing results, I don't know what does.
You're also oversimplifying and evolution which is understandable given the space. However, both the examples you give are examples of complex systems. Science still doesn't know a lot about how these things form much less how they evolve. But the beauty of a scienctific world, as opposed to the religious world, is that answers will come eventually as long as we continue to apply the scientific method. In religion, answers are never guaranteed and questions are often brushed aside.
I encourage you to read some science about emergent network properties. Even the wikipedia entry on emergence is informative.
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