Non-intelligent intelligence, non-organized organization, non-purposive purpose

Kristor writes:

This article will interest you. Teleology creeps yet further into the Standard neo-Darwinian Model, with the discovery that macromolecules are guiding the selection of mutations toward increased fitness. The macromolecules have no idea what they are doing, of course. A quote from the article:

The scientists do not know how the cellular machinery guiding this process may have originated, but they emphatically said it does not buttress the case for intelligent design, a controversial notion that posits the existence of a creator responsible for complexity in nature.

Chakrabarti said that one of the aims of modern evolutionary theory is to identify principles of self-organization that can accelerate the generation of complex biological structures. “Such principles are fully consistent with the principles of natural selection. Biological change is always driven by random mutation and selection, but at certain pivotal junctures in evolutionary history, such random processes can create structures capable of steering subsequent evolution toward greater sophistication and complexity.”

That’s interesting, isn’t it: “We don’t know where this came from but we know where it didn’t come from.” LOL!

LA replies:

As I’m reading this I’m laughing in shameless Schadenfreude.

And, of course, “self-organization” was originally posited, back in the 1970s-80s, as a wholistic, New-Agey, non-Darwinian explanation of life!

Kristor replies:

Right, right. Tears rolling down my virtual cheeks. Time out to give my abs a rest. Self-organization, of course, being a version of the famous “emergence.” Emergence from what? From nothingness? Self-organization of what? How can a self that does not yet exist do any organizing of itself? Inquiring minds want to know. The answer? “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain…” Bottom line, there is only one Person who can get something out of nothing; who can bridge the infinite abyss that yawns between being and nothingness.

LA replies:

It can’t be bettered, can it?

And the earth was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters…

But we’d better be careful, we might be indicted as enemies of human rights…

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 09, 2009 04:47 PM | Send