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Word Gems 

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Perry Marshall's
Evolution 2.0

an electrical engineer / computer programmer
investigates the principles of Darwinism

Darwinists refuse to discuss statistics, as these undermine their position.

 


 

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Editor's note: The following is from Perry Marshall's book, Evolution 2.0: Breaking the Deadlock between Darwin and Design

 

 

 

 

Editor's note:

Perry Marshall’s assertions in Evolution 2.0 do not constitute mere opinion but are supported by empirical research. His statements are buttressed by a bibliography of nearly 1000 articles in scientific journals.

 

 

“At the beginning of this journey, absorbing books and scouring websites, I was gasping for breath in an ocean of confusion and frustration.”

Editor’s note: How often I have commented, primarily to myself, in similar vein. It is so difficult to get a straight story from anyone in this field of enquiry – not only misinformation, but disinformation. It is, as we’ve noted earlier, an example of the attorney with the weak case “shouting at the jury.” And what about those 1000 articles in scientific journals which would smash the clay feet of Darwinism? They’re just ignored, cutting-edge research swept under the rug, by the Darwinian monopoly which writes the textbooks.

“Biology was such an immensely complex subject, and the debates were so charged with emotion.”

Editor’s note: Is this a debate among objective white-coated scientists or a fever-pitched go-to-meeting tent revival?

“But the worst part was having no sense of anything solid… I needed something that would make the whole topic less ‘squishy.’ I thought probability and statistics might help, so I started asking questions like, If a hacker has to try 100 billion combinations, on purpose, to guess one eight-digit password, then how long would it take for random copying errors to produce an eye?

“An eight digit password with upper- and lower-case letters and numbers has more than 1014 (100 trillion) possible code combinations. The [so-called ‘simple’] bacterium Mycoplasma genitalia, widely studied because it has one of the smallest genomes, has 582,970 base pairs. That makes 1023 (100 billion trillion) possible code combinations. The human genome, with 3 billion base pairs, has 1038 possible code combinations.”

Editor’s note: And now we quickly enter the arena of a time requirement of multiple durations of the entire universe to allow any credibility for randomness. Darwinists blithely blather about “given enough time” randomness will make pigs fly. But there’s not enough time in a whole string of universes to make this fairy-tale come true. It's a statistical impossibility.

“I soon found lots of people cry foul as soon as you bring up statistics in evolution debates. Some simply refused to entertain such questions at all. Occasionally someone would remark, ‘Obviously we’re here so it doesn’t matter what the chances are.’

Editor’s note: This “obviously we’re here” remark is one more glaring example of “circular reasoning,” which we addressed in an earlier article and in the “Clear Thinking” writing. Let’s understand what's happening with these “people who cry foul.” Those who cannot win an argument on the merits of the case resort to “political correctness,” a form of censorship, an attempt to ridicule and dishonor an opponent rather than meet another viewpoint in open and honest debate.

“One would surely expect to find a book somewhere called The Statistical Case for Random Mutations, or something like that, which would methodically demonstrate that an acceptable percentage of beneficial random mutations will inevitably occur. Such a book would be a staple of any evolutionary reading list. After all, one can hardly practice science without math! But alas, I found no such book. The rigorous treatments I did find, such as Fred Hoyle’s Mathematics of Evolution and a symposium at the Wistar Institute showed [that] evolution via random mutations was exponentially improbable.”

 

 

Editor's last word:

In 1915 Einstein was on the verge of announcing his monumental “General Theory of Relativity” – but he was being delayed because he couldn’t make the math work. He couldn't prove what he thought to be true.

A colleague, one of the best mathematicians in the world, knew of Einstein’s dilemma but decided to work on the related math on his own, hoping to steal the glory. The mathematician really didn’t know that much about relativity but, he reasoned, if he were able to create the supporting math, he would jump to the head of the parade and be given credit for one of the most important ideas of history – such was the gravitas associated with the concept of having a mathematical basis for one’s theories.

Also, let’s consider Newton who, 200 years before, in the earlier physics revolution, published his seminal Principia (“Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”), replete, on virtually every page, with mathematical undergirding for the “clockwork universe.”

In these examples, and a great many more which could be mentioned, mathematics takes center stage in the unveiling of any new scientific idea. As Marshall points out, “one can hardly practice science without math.”

But consider this: Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” purportedly one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of history, offers not a particle, not an atom, of supporting math in its pages. Not one little equation.

probability and chance are math concepts

This paucity of mathematical basis is all the more remarkable as math concepts such as probability and chance form the superstructure of the entire Darwinian theory! (By the way, it’s not a “theory” because so much of it lies unproven; it’s still languishing, and rightly so, in the ignominious and much-less glamourous status of “hypothesis.”) Probability and chance are math concepts! It’s not difficult to see the supreme irony here.

We are invited to accept, at the pain of ridicule from self-appointed elitists, a theory, they say, based on mathematical concepts, but without any hint or whisper of the slightest actual mathematical support.

Is this not utterly strange? This is what we would expect to find in a hyped religious doctrine, from Dear Mother Cult, or a political kangaroo-court, detached from reality, pronouncements based solely on opinion and private agenda.

more than drinking the koolaid

The long reach of cultism encompasses much more than crackpot churches. The root idea of cult offers the sense of "cut." This core concept of "cut" leads us to images of refinement and refashioning and, by extension, development, control, pattern, order, and system.

Cultism as systemization finds a ready home in religion and philosophy which seek to regulate and redistill the patterning and ordering of ideas. However, in a larger sense, the spirit of cultism extends to every facet of society. We find it scheming and sedulously at work in politics, academia, family, corporations, entertainment, science, artistry – anywhere power might be gained by capturing credulous and fear-based minds.

See the “cultism” page for a full discussion.