Creation vs. Evolution

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alwight

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So unless a radio signal is "perfect" you don't bother about noise? That's what you are saying here. Why do you guys never get embarrassed by the absurd things you say?
Yorzhik I doubt that you have any understanding of "noise". In a telecom system noise is generally a permanent background feature but Shannon's work was in pioneering digital transmission techniques. Digital transmission systems do not have to be noise free for it to transmit error free information. All it requires is that the transmitted digital signals are detectable above the background level of noise. Apart from that most errors that do occur are detectable by using sum checking protocols so that the information can be re-sent and corrected as required.

This is why laymen don't trust the experts. Even laymen know according to Shannon the message is defined as perfect before it is transmitted.
I'm still waiting to see how any of that applies to genetic transcription and isn't just a bunch of creationist red herrings and smoke and mirrors.

http://www.greentouch.org/?page=shannons-law-explained
 

6days

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1443638677457
Awesome answer!!!
 

Jose Fly

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My prior request for the name of a university for an aspiring student was prompted directly by this claim you make. If you have a sincere desire to help a new science student, you will try to direct them to a quality institution that will teach what you know to be true. What world-class institution would you recommend that teaches recent creation and disavows deep time?

IOW, you're using a different approach to make the same point I've made here many times, namely that creationism is 100% scientifically irrelevant, and has been for at least the last 100 years.

All these debates, discussions, and the like are fun, but in the end none of them will have any impact on the current state of science or how it's conducted at all. No matter what anyone posts here, evolutionary theory will remain the cornerstone of the life sciences, and creationism will remain irrelevant.
 

DavisBJ

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Quid pro quo

Quid pro quo

You are having difficulty admitting that a belief in the Biblical creator has lead to major contributions in our world including science, medicine, education and culture.
We very directly addressed this issue recently. I explicitly said that I am an amateur in regards to the interplay between religious history and the rise of science. If you want to thump your chest and claim that it was your religious tradition that provided a favorable philosophical setting for the development of science, then go ahead. Remember when I recently said “I won’t dispute that at all” in response to a similar claim by you? (see posts 16,567 and 16,580).
That universities teach evolutionism now does not take from the fact that a belief in the Biblical creator has lead to major contributions in our world including science, medicine, education and culture.
Once again, for the hard of hearing – I won’t dispute that at all.
That universities teach evolutionism now does not take from the fact that a belief in the Biblical creator has lead to major contributions in our world including science, medicine, education and culture.
Once again, for the hard of hearing – I won’t dispute that at all.
And you were answered. I told you that i didn't need to agree with what they teach now, but modern science and many great universities were founded because of Christianity and a belief in the Biblical creator.
Once again, for the hard of hearing – I won’t dispute that at all.
I think many, if not most university professors would be able to admit that modern science and many great universities were founded because of Christianity and a belief in the Biblical creator.
Once again, for the hard of hearing – I won’t dispute that at all.
In threads about home schooling, I have said it’s important that Christian parents teach ToE since that is what they will get in higher grades and in university. In fact, kids who are home schooled (predominantly Christian) scoring higher in college entrance exams than those who received public education and indoctrination. IOW....Christian kids should thoroughly know ToE... but they should also understand the evidence against that theory...and the evidence that supports the Biblical account.
Then those students, after actually becoming scientists, should be able to produce scientific papers that carry their case.
If by the word 'evolution', you are referring to the belief in common ancestry, then yes it is often agenda driven and not science.
At last, thank you. So you implicitly agree with what Yorzhik calls “consensus” in the best universities. You and Yorzhik have tacitly admitted that across the depth and breadth of the premier universities that are recognized for their biology programs, in fact they are not teaching science when the subject of ToE is covered. You often speak of “great universities”, but now you claim that when they teach about the ToE they are not teaching science at all, and in fact are teaching an idea that you violently oppose. Do you think the adjective "great" is the one you really want to use to describe universities that teach such things?

If, as you adamantly claim, modern science was largely due to the influence of Christian thought, how is it that such pernicious doctrines have become endemic across the academic world?
 

Jose Fly

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You and Yorzhik have tacitly admitted that across the depth and breadth of the premier universities that are recognized for their biology programs, in fact they are not teaching science when the subject of ToE is covered. You often speak of “great universities”, but now you claim that when they teach about the ToE they are not teaching science at all, and in fact are teaching an idea that you violently oppose.

Not only that, but they also apparently believe that these universities are part of the largest, most comprehensive conspiracy in the history of mankind. Instead of teaching genuine science, they indoctrinate students into a belief system by teaching false "facts", ignoring all contrary evidence, and expelling anyone and everyone who dares to question the theory or think outside the pre-approved box.

That is what 6days and Yorzhik believe goes on at universities, right guys?
 

Caino

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Not only that, but they also apparently believe that these universities are part of the largest, most comprehensive conspiracy in the history of mankind. Instead of teaching genuine science, they indoctrinate students into a belief system by teaching false "facts", ignoring all contrary evidence, and expelling anyone and everyone who dares to question the theory or think outside the pre-approved box.

That is what 6days and Yorzhik believe goes on at universities, right guys?

The conspiracy happened with the complete rewriting of Hebrew history in Babylonian captivity.
 

6days

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DavisBJ said:
6days said:
In threads about home schooling, I have said it’s important that Christian parents teach ToE since that is what they will get in higher grades and in university. In fact, kids who are home schooled (predominantly Christian) scoring higher in college entrance exams than those who received public education and indoctrination. IOW....Christian kids should thoroughly know ToE... but they should also understand the evidence against that theory...and the evidence that supports the Biblical account.

Then those students, after actually becoming scientists, should be able to produce scientific papers that carry their case.

Yes... they do. If you want to see their arguments supporting Biblical creation, their are peer reviewed journals for you. These same scientists also publish in secular journals but of course not discussing Biblical creation.*



DavisBJ said:
*Do you think the adjective "great" is the one you really want to use to describe universities that teach such things?
Of course! Most people would agree Michelangnelo is a great painter even if they don't *agree with all the subject matter. Most Catholics would say St. Pauls Hospital is a great one, even though some abortions occur there.
 

Tyrathca

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Ouch. Shannon would look at this and just shake his head.

You realize what you are saying is that a radio signal that included a lot of noise has more information than the radio signal itself for the same reasons. Why do we even error correct when there is so much additional information we can gain from the noise?

Maybe gcthomas could explain it to you, "Shannon entropy describes the changes from a starting point of a perfect 'message', defining all noise as potentially damaging."

Hey don't blame me, I'm just applying your stupid reasoning of DNA -> protein information transfer somehow applies to inheritance. I was very clear in asking you the preconditions. Apart from bit getting the conclusion you want and being a completely inappropriate use of Shannon information (which I'd been arguing for several pages but you wouldn't accept) how specifically did I get your example wrong?


Anyway since you think a larger protein coding dna segment has more information than a small one (as you previously stated remember) why does this not apply when looking at mutations? If you didn't know the difference in information was due to a mutation then you'd say there is more information so why does knowing there is a mutation as the cause change things?
 

DavisBJ

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The meaningless "great"

The meaningless "great"

Yes... they do. If you want to see their arguments supporting Biblical creation, their are peer reviewed journals for you.
These same scientists also publish in secular journals but of course not discussing Biblical creation.
That’s not a problem, since Hindu scientists publish science in secular science journals, and Moslem scientists publish science in secular science journals, etc. But all of these people are free to pursue scientific studies that they feel do validate their theological beliefs. Science should not make a publish/no-publish decision based on whether or not the study lends credence to one creation tale over another. Mother Nature doesn’t care, as long as the study is impartially done in accordance with good scientific practice. Hard-core atheists and Jehovah’s Witnesses and devout Catholics and John Baumgardner can all work together, and even repeat each other’s tests to confirm the data.

That is why 99% of the time when I read a technical science article I don’t even know, or care, what the theological leanings of the author(s) is.
Most people would agree Michelangelo is a great painter even if they don't agree with all the subject matter. Most Catholics would say St. Paul’s Hospital is a great one, even though some abortions occur there.
Ok, then you have no issue with calling a university that teaches deep time, old earth, big bang, and Darwinian evolution a “great university”. I tend to restrict the unadorned adjective “great” as descriptive of universities that do not routinely teach material that I strongly disagree with. I will keep the significant difference between our uses of “great” in mind when I see you employ that word in the future.
 

6days

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JoseFly said:
Well, then he's either a liar or so ignorant in this subject that he's not a credible source.
Haha..... its pretty obvious between geneticist John Sanford and Jose fly, which one doesn'tunderstand science
 

DavisBJ

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Pros, Cons, and Consensus

Pros, Cons, and Consensus

I answered directly. Consensus is on your side.
My apology, I missed that meaning in the first time when you answered “consensus”.

This does bring forth some interesting thoughts. If I were a dedicated creationist, and my child was heading for college, I would be concerned that what I consider faith-destroying lies were routinely being taught at the premier universities. I would want my child to come out of college with a good understanding of how science works, and be conversant with the current knowledge in science. But that means I may have to enroll my child in “Aunt Sally’s Collegiate Level Knitting School and Biology Emporium”, instead of the secular schools that bow to “consensus”. Or alternatively, I might elect to send my child to Yale, and then on weekends we will regularly meet with Pastor Pete so he can ask my child what was taught that week, and he then can correct whatever misinformation was taught.
So you introduced me to the director with that email? What was his response?
Good try, but that is not what I said. As I suspected, your HDF complaints are not of enough concern to you for you to even show the initiative of asking the people who know most about the HDF. Short of personally escorting you to the STScI main office, I have made it exquisitely easy for you to contact them. When I had questions I went to them without any directions or handholding.
I have no interest in wasting either of our time. If we want to raise this to the level of conversation he will need a reason, someone on the common descent side, that will lend enough weight to my introduction that he will get passed my being YEC.
Do you think they will slam the door in your face if they sense you are a YEC? Instead, you want to conceal your YEC leanings so you can get in? Is that the way you operate? In that case, you are most assuredly wasting both of our time.
If there were a scientist that wasn't allowed to work because he was black, you'd be outraged. Especially if as much information about the case was available as is with Dr. Sternberg you would have heard about it and had an opinion on it.
But see, I don’t make a habit out of seeking out why people get canned. If they happen to have been employed close enough to me, then it is likely I would be made aware. (And that has happened a few times, though never for espousing religious views.) If you think I am some sort of miscreant who is intentionally blind to workplace injustice because I don’t know who your martyr is, then so be it.
But because in your world its OK to drum people out of their position because of their beliefs (even if they don't affect the science done), you ignore injustice.
Which is exactly what I said I have never seen done.
Ok. So you are saying this is a highly controversial subject with no good points on one side of it.
It is apparently really hard for you to accurately understand what I did and did not say. So once again - I am not aware of any YEC arguments that I feel are credible. Did I say there are none? NO. I said I am not aware of any. I have a number of YEC books and publications that I simply have not had the time to read in depth. Maybe there are substantive arguments in them. There are fields that I know I am not qualified to pass judgement on. In those fields I withhold personal judgement (though I will admit, I am usually not adverse to relying on “consensus” in those cases.)
You do realize that you've turned yourself into a person that, until proven otherwise, has admitted they just plug their ears and yell LALALALALA whenever information they disagree with is brought up.
Then you should find little credibility in my postings. Why are you bothering to respond to someone who “just plugs their ears and yells LALALALALA”?
A person that looks for the truth takes the strong points from both sides. He spends his time looking especially at the people that offer the strongest arguments for both sides
The sentiment I agree with. But perhaps unlike you, I actually have considerable demands on my time away from the YEC controversy. I make no claim, nor will I, that I am right up-to-date on the pros and cons.
(you admit you won't look at Sternberg).
Repacking what I actually said into a falsehood is not something that becomes you or your religion. All I have said is I am not aware of who Sternberg is. I have said nothing about “won’t look at Sternberg.”
That's what I did and it changed me from and OEC to a YEC. I didn't have to change.
Whatever the Sternberg affair was – it was the catalyst that deceived you into the YEC mindset? Really? Wow, maybe I better steer clear of learning the details of such a powerful story. I might get corrupted like you were.
There are plenty of good scientists who are Christians and my life would be fine either way. But I was interested in the truth.
You would be crucifying your own credibility if you said otherwise.
 

6days

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DavisBJ said:
Science should not make a publish/no-publish decision based on whether or not the study lends credence to one creation tale over another.
*Science is science is science. Science does not have a mind to decide what gets published. Biased and profit driven editors decide. (For all types of journals).*
DavisBJ said:
Hard-core atheists and Jehovah’s Witnesses and devout Catholics and John Baumgardner can all work together, and even repeat each other’s tests to confirm the data.
Yes...they do.

DavisBJ said:
That is why 99% of the time when I read a technical science article I don’t even know, or care, what the theological leanings of the author(s) is.
Hmmmmm...... Well, I will admit that i have seen you read and agree with data from a creationist scientist but disagree with conclusions. So, I would say we all care about conclusions that disagree the beliefs we start out with.*

DavisBJ said:
I will keep the significant difference between our uses of “great” in mind when I see you employ that word in the future.
I think you are great Davis....and I say that sincerely. ToL benifits by having Alwight and yourself as regular posters. I appreciate you even though we almost always disagree.
 

Yorzhik

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No problem. I don't believe any miracles were performed by nature. So now, when and where is that miracle you are going to invite me to?
It doesn't matter what *you* believe. Common descent includes lots of miracles according to materialists. The formation of the solar system does too. One of them is how you get more information from a signal via noise. And there's lots more where that comes from.
 

Yorzhik

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You've set up an Aunt Sally, here.
I merely restated what you said.

And Shannon's work was about what sort of redundancy was needed to preserve that perfect and complete signal.

Again, you missed answering the question. So you think that DNA was perfect originally and that mutations cannot be beneficial?
I answered it. Directly and completely. Go back and re-read my answer and try again.
 

Yorzhik

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Yorzhik I doubt that you have any understanding of "noise". In a telecom system noise is generally a permanent background feature but Shannon's work was in pioneering digital transmission techniques. Digital transmission systems do not have to be noise free for it to transmit error free information. All it requires is that the transmitted digital signals are detectable above the background level of noise. Apart from that most errors that do occur are detectable by using sum checking protocols so that the information can be re-sent and corrected as required.

I'm still waiting to see how any of that applies to genetic transcription and isn't just a bunch of creationist red herrings and smoke and mirrors.

http://www.greentouch.org/?page=shannons-law-explained
Your eyes have already glazed over on this topic. When you've come out of your catatonic state let us know.
 

Yorzhik

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Hey don't blame me, I'm just applying your stupid reasoning of DNA -> protein information transfer somehow applies to inheritance.
Because inheritance is done with cells which you've learned are chock full of messages.

I was very clear in asking you the preconditions. Apart from bit getting the conclusion you want and being a completely inappropriate use of Shannon information (which I'd been arguing for several pages but you wouldn't accept) how specifically did I get your example wrong?
Because you stopped using Shannon in your examples.

Anyway since you think a larger protein coding dna segment has more information than a small one (as you previously stated remember) why does this not apply when looking at mutations? If you didn't know the difference in information was due to a mutation then you'd say there is more information so why does knowing there is a mutation as the cause change things?
It was already made clear where your problem is. I'll state it plainly again. If more information is provided by noise, then we would invite noise in radio signals just to get more information. Shannon states that the amount of information from the sent message cannot be exceeded by the decoded message; by stating that bigger proteins contain more or less information relative to each other, you've left the context of Shannon information which only compares the amount of information between the encoded message and the decoded message.
 

DavisBJ

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Yorzhik's two-edged sword

Yorzhik's two-edged sword

It doesn't matter what *you* believe.
I agree, in the sense that Mother Nature cares nothing about what I believe, or about what you believe, or anyone else.
Common descent includes lots of miracles according to materialists.
I suspect most of the “miracles” you allude to are not thought to be miracles at all by many scientists. You are welcome to believe they are miracles, but then we come full circle back to the fact that your beliefs are as meaningless to reality as are mine.
The formation of the solar system does too.
Hogwash.
… there's lots more where that comes from.
More of your beliefs about what are miracles? Remember, as per your opening statement, those beliefs count for squat.
 

Yorzhik

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My apology, I missed that meaning in the first time when you answered “consensus”.

This does bring forth some interesting thoughts. If I were a dedicated creationist, and my child was heading for college, I would be concerned that what I consider faith-destroying lies were routinely being taught at the premier universities. I would want my child to come out of college with a good understanding of how science works, and be conversant with the current knowledge in science. But that means I may have to enroll my child in “Aunt Sally’s Collegiate Level Knitting School and Biology Emporium”, instead of the secular schools that bow to “consensus”. Or alternatively, I might elect to send my child to Yale, and then on weekends we will regularly meet with Pastor Pete so he can ask my child what was taught that week, and he then can correct whatever misinformation was taught.
To be sure, living in a world where smart people, such as yourself, will teach bad science as the norm is a problem. We deal with it by having the kids argue with common descentists and pursue truth while they are young. Fortunately, there are very few new arguments coming from the common descentist side so even a high schooler will most likely see through most common descent arguments. Unfortunately, most kids are raised in public school and don't get the benefit of learning to think. So you will keep consensus I think for a long time.

The problem might be that despite being a good student, there are a lot of common descent professors and teachers that don't tolerate dissent from common descent and will fail a student because they disagree with them. That will be harder to work against, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Good try, but that is not what I said. As I suspected, your HDF complaints are not of enough concern to you for you to even show the initiative of asking the people who know most about the HDF. Short of personally escorting you to the STScI main office, I have made it exquisitely easy for you to contact them. When I had questions I went to them without any directions or handholding.

Do you think they will slam the door in your face if they sense you are a YEC? Instead, you want to conceal your YEC leanings so you can get in? Is that the way you operate? In that case, you are most assuredly wasting both of our time.
Yes, they'll slam the door in my face when I tell them I'm YEC. That's why we need you to put some of your reputation on the line and introduce me so I can get a word in edgewise.

Of course you won't do that, because you know if you show any grace to a YEC that they will slam the door in *your* face. You know it, so you won't risk it.

But see, I don’t make a habit out of seeking out why people get canned. If they happen to have been employed close enough to me, then it is likely I would be made aware. (And that has happened a few times, though never for espousing religious views.) If you think I am some sort of miscreant who is intentionally blind to workplace injustice because I don’t know who your martyr is, then so be it.
If you were interested in the topic at all you would have known. Maybe you've never heard that your side has consensus, but I doubt it. I think you've heard stories like this for a long time. And if you have, and was seeking after truth, then you would realize that your consensus is manufactured and you would have looked into the most obvious examples of the claim.

Then again, if you aren't interested in the truth of the claim, then you could ignore all the stories at your will. I believe this is the real reason.

Which is exactly what I said I have never seen done.
I believe you.

It is apparently really hard for you to accurately understand what I did and did not say. So once again - I am not aware of any YEC arguments that I feel are credible. Did I say there are none? NO. I said I am not aware of any. I have a number of YEC books and publications that I simply have not had the time to read in depth. Maybe there are substantive arguments in them. There are fields that I know I am not qualified to pass judgement on. In those fields I withhold personal judgement (though I will admit, I am usually not adverse to relying on “consensus” in those cases.)
So you are saying that irreducible complexity is a point in favor of YEC, but a weak argument.

Then you should find little credibility in my postings. Why are you bothering to respond to someone who “just plugs their ears and yells LALALALALA”?
Correct, not much credibility. But enough to make it worth my time, and enough to let the kids read over and learn.

The sentiment I agree with. But perhaps unlike you, I actually have considerable demands on my time away from the YEC controversy. I make no claim, nor will I, that I am right up-to-date on the pros and cons.

Repacking what I actually said into a falsehood is not something that becomes you or your religion. All I have said is I am not aware of who Sternberg is. I have said nothing about “won’t look at Sternberg.”
The claim of why consensus is the way it is is very old in internet years. If you haven't looked into it by now, I can't imagine why you'd start. But certainly people can change so be my guest.

Whatever the Sternberg affair was – it was the catalyst that deceived you into the YEC mindset? Really? Wow, maybe I better steer clear of learning the details of such a powerful story. I might get corrupted like you were.
No. Looking into truth is what changed me. Sternberg was a tiny piece of evidence.

Yorzhik said:
There are plenty of good scientists who are Christians and my life would be fine either way. But I was interested in the truth
You would be crucifying your own credibility if you said otherwise.
The point being that I wasn't motivated to change because of my Christian convictions. Reading the bible and understanding what it said about creation came later.
 

MichaelCadry

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6 days has been convinced by the holy men that God wrote the Bible. It's a form of idolatry. Scripture is just a more sophisticated "Golden Calf". That's why Jesus didn't write anything down or leave behind anything that could become a kind of idol.

They don't believe some of the things in the Bible because they sound true, they believe them because they are in the Bible. If the Bible said that God set life in motion millions of years ago through the creative process of evolution then they would be fine with that.

If the Bible didn't contain the flood story and someone found it in say, with the dead sea scrolls, they would naturally think it was the most ridiculous thing they ever heard and discount it out of hand. But sense the Hebrews used the legend as a part of their genealogical claims, Bible worshipers MUST bend reality to fit the story.

That's faith, and honestly, I believe some very unusual things myself.

Dear Caino,

Christianity is NOT a form of idolatry or like a 'golden calf.' It is followed by millions and not like your belief, the Urantia book, which is followed by a lesser number indeed. The snake did not 'speak' to Eve. It was by mental telepathy. Same with the donkey. You just don't understand, is all. And Revelation was given to John of Patmos by Jesus. I can assure you that everything in it is the truth. And there is more to come that will be shown to be true and you will be surprised. Your Urantia Book is too much!

Michael
 
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