Intelligent Design or Evolution? Why the Origin of Life and the Evolution of Molecular Knowledge Imply Design - Softcover

Pullen, Stuart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0976639408 ISBN 13: 9780976639404

Publisher: Intelligent Design Books, 2005

Synopsis

Intelligent Design or Evolution? examines many unresolved issues associated with chemical evolution, the origin of life, and the evolution of molecular knowledge. With the help of information theory, this book develops statistical models to describe the evolution of the first genes and proteins. It also investigates the chemistry required for the prebiotic synthesis of biological molecules on the primitive earth. The evidence presented will show that naturalistic laws fail to explain the synthesis of RNA, DNA and proteins in the primordial soup. These same laws also fail to explain the origin of life and the evolution of the first genes and proteins. Taken together, these failures imply that life was created.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The origin of life is perhaps the most perplexing problem facing science today. Despite an intense 50 year search , no solution is yet evident.
If naturalistic laws do not explain life's origin, then life must have been created. This theory is called intelligent design. This book explores the intelligent design paradigm from three different perspectives. Chapter 9 discusses many of the problems associated with creating the required biological molecules on the primitive earth. Chapters 6, 7 and 10 show that life did not start as a simple self replicating molecule. The rest of the book uses information theory to calculate the molecular knowledge in genes and proteins. This knowledge is then related to a probability of evolution. All three approaches support the design inference.
Because information theory is not an easy concept, this book confines the math to simple algebra. It also includes several chapters of introductory material to gradually introduce readers to molecular biology, computational biochemistry, and chemical thermodynamics.

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Introduction:

This book will show that naturalistic laws do not explain the origin of life and then suggest that this failure implies that life was created. The logic behind this conclusion is known as intelligent design.

The Philosophy of Science
Science by definition attempts to explain everything in terms of naturalistic laws. So before analyzing any data, science rules out the possibility that life was created. While this philosophy has served science well, it is somewhat problematic if a creator exists.
Intelligent design differs from science in that it does not make any assumptions about creation. Instead intelligent design allows the evidence to lead where it may. If the scientific evidence suggests that naturalistic laws do not fully explain the origin of life, then intelligent design infers that a designer exists and was responsible.
Intelligent design cannot prove that a creator exists. Rather it uses indirect logic to infer that such a being exists. Scientific experiments test how evolution happens. Experiments designed to test if evolution is possible are not considered good science, and this philosophy has trapped science. To better understand the trap, suppose tomorrow that a thousand fossils are found that document how T. Rex evolved from another dinosaur. Science will assert that these fossils prove that T. Rex evolved from another ancient dinosaur. Further, it will assert that naturalistic laws fully explain the transition. Science does not have to justify the second assertion because it simply assumes that it is true. Furthermore, most scientists would consider any experiment designed to test the probabilities associated with this particular evolutionary transition as unnecessary. This philosophy does not allow science much freedom. No matter what the evidence shows, the assumptions on which science is based ensure that science will always support the theory of evolution. Thus, science is trapped.
The failure of science to ask is evolution possible...

Edition details

• Publisher: Intelligent Design Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0976639408
• ISBN 13: 9780976639404
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 287