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Suzan Mazur to Larry Krauss: Darwinism now marginalized

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Origin of Life Circus In her new book, The Origin of Life Circus, journalist Suzan Mazur interviewed Larry Krauss because he is the “gatekeeper” of the late Harry Lonsdale’s prize for promising research into the origin of life (Lonsdale, a chemist, proceeded from a chemical and Darwinian view).

Readers may call Krauss from John Lennox replies to Larry Krauss’s claim that Higgs boson “arguably more relevant than God”, Christian cosmologist Don Page calls out Larry Krauss on “Why is there something rather than nothing?”, and Celeb atheists Dawkins and Grayling don’t want to debate apologist Craig because … maybe a reason is now emerging … Larry Krauss! (As Krauss tells it, Craig is “disingenuous,” and he “shocked” Larry Krauss in a recent debate.) Incidentally, for a physicist, Krauss spends a lot of time arguing about religion or with religious figures. Just noticing.

Anyway, Mazur’s discussion with Krauss turned up a interesting exchange, among many:

Suzan Mazur

Suzan Mazur:The Origin of Life Challenge focus so far has been on the chemical, life described in the Lonsdale outreach as “a self-sustaining chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution.” However, Darwinian and neo-Dawinian theory are waning in serious science circles.

My question is, in giving advice and direction to the Lonsdale Challenge were you aware that whole swaths of the scientific community now have Darwinian science in the margins?

Lawrence Krauss: Well I don’t think they have Darwinian science in the margins.

Suzan Mazur:They actually do.

Various examples are tossed around, and then:

Lawrence Krauss: Whether you call it life or not, it’s just the laws of physics and chemistry. There’s nothing beyond the laws of physics and chemistry that allow for the origin of life. We are just a bunch of chemicals subject to forces and laws. It’s electromagnetism and quantum mechanics and how those laws of electromagnetism and quantum mechanics produce chemistry. And how chemistry produces biology. And then once biology is produced, how do those laws impact on how biological molecules evolve. It’s a continuum. (pp. 38-39)

Note that in his response Krauss does not mention information, the vast amounts of which chiefly distinguish life from non-life. Which in turn means that one can drive a 26-wheeler through the gap in his program.

This isn’t even a question of whether the magical Darwinian mechanism can just produce information, standing in for the Laurence KraussBoltzmann brain. The problem is bigger than that.

Here’s a thought from evolutionary biologist G. C. Williams that sums up a part of it:

“Information doesn’t have mass or charge or length in millimeters. Likewise, matter doesn’t have bytes. You can’t measure so much gold in so many bytes. It doesn’t have redundancy, or fidelity, or any of the other descriptors we apply to information. This dearth of shared descriptors makes matter and information two separate domains of existence, which have to be discussed separately, in their own terms.” – G. C. Williams, quoted in By Design or by Chance?, p. 234.

So there are two separate domains of existence, and the second one is simply ignored. Read William Dembski’s Being as Communion for an insight into the issues.

Also, readers: Make sure that people who claim they love you prove it by getting you this book on the next suitable occasion. As long as they don’t mind that you disappear a few times over the next few weeks to read its eye-opening interviews. 😉

For more on why the origin of life field can’t really go anywhere if Krauss’s assumptions prevail, here’s a synopsis.

Follow UD News at Twitter!

Added: We mustn’t confuse cultural Darwinism (the bobbleheads pursuing Scott Walker about where he stands on “evolution”) with useful science theory. The bobbleheads are talking about something more like evolutionary psychology (the caveman explains why you drank to much at that party last night, etc.). Not about anything that could be recognized as science.

Comments
as to:
Suzan Mazur: My question is, in giving advice and direction to the Lonsdale Challenge were you aware that whole swaths of the scientific community now have Darwinian science in the margins? Lawrence Krauss: Well I don’t think they have Darwinian science in the margins. Suzan Mazur:They actually do.
as to 'they actually do':
Scientists stunned by the public’s doubt of Darwin - April 22, 2014 Excerpt: (Stephen) Meyer said that view under-represents the real facts being discovered in evolutionary biology. “Very few leading evolutionary biologists today think that natural selection and random mutation are sufficient to produce the new forms of life we see arising in the history of life,” Meyer said. “And then when the public is catching wind of the scientific doubts of Darwinian evolution and expresses them in a poll like this, these self-appointed spokesmen for science say that the public is ignorant. But actually, the public is more in line with what’s going on in science than these spokesmen for science.” http://www.worldmag.com/2014/04/scientists_stunned_by_the_public_s_doubt_of_darwin Darwin's Doubt (Part 9) by Paul Giem - video - The Post Darwinian World and Self Organization Chapter 15 and 16 of Darwin's Doubt in which 6 alternative models to neo-Darwinism, that have been proposed by evolutionists (such as those of the Altenberg 16) to 'make up' for the inadequacy in neo-Darwinism, are discussed and the failings of each model is exposed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iREO1h4h-GU&index=10&list=PLHDSWJBW3DNUaMy2xdaup5ROw3u0_mK8t The Third Way “J.A. Shapiro a professor at the University of Chicago, , and other top researchers, is searching for a “third way,” a (ahem) 'scientific', non-Darwinian way.” http://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people
of related interest to 'non-Darwinian' evolution (i.e. adaptation) is this recent lecture: Epigenetics, New Insights into the Genetic System and Evolution 2-28-2015 by Leonard Brand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJUJFYb1iFkbornagain77
March 2, 2015
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Among the 20 links above, why do half of them just link to other uncommon descent articles but none actually link to the original interview we're discussing? For the curious, here is the original interview, which is from 2012: http://counterpunch.org/2012/06/20/origin-of-life-the-pack-and-the-prize/JoeCoder
March 2, 2015
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Krauss is more than a clown...He is attention seeking at any cost even at making a fool of himself... He is a kook and nothing else... I stopped reading his stuff after I have wasted $20 on his book and few days to read it...Quest
March 2, 2015
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JimFit: this stupid face, Krauss http://tinyurl.com/LMKraus http://krauss.faculty.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Krauss_CV2014_DEC.pdfZachriel
March 2, 2015
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OT: Now this is something even the earnest, but misguided, Krauss could appreciate: The first ever photograph of light as both a particle and wave - Mar. 2, 2015 http://phys.org/news/2015-03-particle.htmlbornagain77
March 2, 2015
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I wonder how can you take up seriously this stupid face, Krauss is a clown that noone will remember after years. Atheists are arrogant and that drives them to wrong conclusions.JimFit
March 2, 2015
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The second this man claimed that nothing (as in NO THING) is actually not nothing but rather something, he should have been removed from any position of influence. He does however stand as an example of where materialism ultimately leads a person long term. Absolute nut job.humbled
March 2, 2015
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