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**Stoottnoiciek** · 09-03-2008, 07:46 PM

dear friends,

http://abcnews.go.com/technology/who...4357170&page=1

be well, be love.

david

orderly universe: evidence of god?
not really, abc news columnist says; it's not unusual for order to occur naturally

natural diversity and order is not necessarily a sign of god's guiding hand, john allen paulos says. (abc news)
by john allen paulos
march 2, 2008

since writing my book "irreligion" and some of my recent who's counting columns, i've received a large number of e-mails from subscribers to creation science (who have recently christened themselves intelligent design theorists). some of the notes have been polite, some vituperative, but almost all question "how order and complexity can arise out of nothing."

since they can imagine no way for this to happen, they conclude there must be an intelligent designer, a god. (they leave aside the prior question of how he arose.)

my canned answer to them about biological order talks a bit about evolution, but they often dismiss that source of order for religious reasons or because of a misunderstanding of the second law of thermodynamics.

because the seemingly inexplicable arising of order seems to be so critical to so many, however, i've decided to list here a few other sources for naturally occurring order in physics, math, and biology. of course, order, complexity, entropy, randomness and related notions are clearly and utterly impossible to describe and disentangle in a column like this, but the examples below from "irreligion" hint at some of the abstract ideas relevant to the arising of what has been called "order for free."

09-03-2008, 07:46 PM	#1
Stoottnoiciek Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 487 Senior Member	Orderly Universe: Evidence of God? dear friends, http://abcnews.go.com/technology/who...4357170&page=1 be well, be love. david orderly universe: evidence of god? not really, abc news columnist says; it's not unusual for order to occur naturally natural diversity and order is not necessarily a sign of god's guiding hand, john allen paulos says. (abc news) by john allen paulos march 2, 2008 since writing my book "irreligion" and some of my recent who's counting columns, i've received a large number of e-mails from subscribers to creation science (who have recently christened themselves intelligent design theorists). some of the notes have been polite, some vituperative, but almost all question "how order and complexity can arise out of nothing." since they can imagine no way for this to happen, they conclude there must be an intelligent designer, a god. (they leave aside the prior question of how he arose.) my canned answer to them about biological order talks a bit about evolution, but they often dismiss that source of order for religious reasons or because of a misunderstanding of the second law of thermodynamics. because the seemingly inexplicable arising of order seems to be so critical to so many, however, i've decided to list here a few other sources for naturally occurring order in physics, math, and biology. of course, order, complexity, entropy, randomness and related notions are clearly and utterly impossible to describe and disentangle in a column like this, but the examples below from "irreligion" hint at some of the abstract ideas relevant to the arising of what has been called "order for free."
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