Hi Russ

Where there is order, there is intelligence. (Intelligence was necessary to create the order

I know that is your belief but can you prove it. Do you know what the second law of thermodynamics says about order in an expanding universe? Do you understand why this really well tested foundational law of physics proves that you are wrong when you say that intelligence is necessary to create order?

Symmetry is actually a very simple challenge for ToE as we see in the HoX gene complex and similar genes that our bodies are, to a great extent, mirrors images left to right of a single pattern held in our DNA. Evolution does not have to invent two independent eye’s with two independent optic nerves it just invents an eye and produces two mirror images of that one pattern. That’s how it’s actually done in extant creatures. To complain that these symmetries are a challenge to ToE says more about your misunderstandings of this field of science than of any flaws in ToE.

Of course we also understand that our bodies are not perfectly symmetrical but we understand and observe that evolution takes minor variations in individuals and weeds out those which are less fit. So if two organisms existed one of which has greater symmetry and so balance and so running ability than the other which do you think would be more likely to survive, thrive and pass on it’s gene’s to the next generation. In some cases symmetry, which is actually the simpler arrangement is optimal and in some cases it’s not. No intelligence is required for evolution to optimize these features of organisms all that is required is that there is an optimum arrangement for these features and that it can be reached in small increments from the ancestral form. Can you see anything in the fossil record or in extant populations that demonstrates that there is an impassable gap between any ancestral form and the modern form that evolution could not bridge? If you can’t point to such a gap you have failed to prove your hypothesis that intelligence is required in which case Occam’s razor has something to say about your ideas given the baggage they carry.

That we observe symmetries created and broken in extant populations based on evolutionary forces shows that evolution is capable of creating both, no intelligence required, at least none that has ever been observed working in our labs and in the wild while we are watching. It is a hypothesis without supporting evidence that god/intelligence is necessary to this process. The maths you cite as proving that it is impossible is unfounded, no such proof exists. The ‘common sense’ that you also appear to apply is grounded in our short lifespans and in our macro world, it is incapable of conceptualizing deep time without a great deal of training and it is out of it’s depth in the micro and the macro world beyond the time and space scales in which we live our lives and in which evolution invented it. Is it any wonder that it finds itself hopelessly outpaced by a science that shows us billons of years, warped space-time and quantum events beyond anything we have or could ever experience? Any wonder that, without training our ‘common sense’ is anything but and leads us to such monumental errors as demanding that intelligence is necessary to the formation of order when we have shown clearly with well tested science that this is false. It’s hard to step beyond common sense but we must if we wish to actually understand the world we live in.

All the best Russ

In Reason

Russell