Kind of like giving a monkey a computer and hoping he’ll “get it” on his own:
There is a growing recognition that biological phenomena which suggest agency, directionality, or goal-directedness demand new conceptual frameworks that can translate into rigorous theoretical models and discriminating empirical tests. This project addresses the demand through a novel, interdisciplinary, large-scale program that combines philosophers, theoreticians, and experimentalists.
Introduction, “Biologists often attribute purpose to living systems… Should they?” at Agency, Directionality & Function
Here’s the blog.
A friend says a number of interesting Third Way people are there. No ID folk, of course.
It’s a good thing theTempleton-funded project is going to a great deal of trouble to demonstrate that intelligence does not create itself by — in effect — ruling out other possibilities via their work. Let’s wish them well at that.
“Large-scale interdisciplinary program” = Big Grants! Oh boy! Gimme some!
If nothing else, this demonstrates that academics are purposeful goal-seeking animals.
They are, apparently, trying to ‘scientifically’ explain the origin of the teleology within biology,,,
,,, teleology that is pervasively apparent at all levels of biological life.
Yet, although they are trying to ‘scientifically’ explain the origin of teleology within biology, the fact of the matter is that you can’t even ‘do science’ in first place without first presupposing that teleology already exists.
As Dr. Michael Egnor succinctly put it, “No explanation of nature — not in biology or physics or in any natural science — makes sense without recourse to final causes. Final cause – teleology — is the cause of causes.”
Or to put it even more simply, you can’t even ‘do science’ in the first place without first presupposing that there is a purpose, and/or rational explanation, a ‘teleological’ purpose, for why things happen.
For example, if you mixed two volatile chemicals in a test tube and they exploded, and your ‘rational explanation’ was that the chemicals exploded for no reason whatsoever, then you, obviously, would not remotely being ‘doing science’.
Science, at its most basic level, is a search for the ‘rational explanation’ for, not only ‘how’ things happen as they do, but also a search for ‘why’ things happen as they do.
As Paul Davies explained in his Templeton Prize address, “even the most atheistic scientist accepts as an act of faith that the universe is not absurd, that there is a rational basis to physical existence”,,,
And indeed the presupposition that the universe has a rational, i.e. ‘teleological’, basis to its existence was one of the primary, foundational, Judeo-Christian presuppositions that led to the founding of modern science itself,
Yet, (in direct contradiction to this foundational ‘rational presupposition’ that is essential to practice modern science in any meaningfully coherent manner in the first place), Darwinian atheists, as a foundational presupposition, hold that, ‘at bottom’, there is no ‘rational explanation’ to be found for why the universe exists, nor any rational explanation to be found for why life itself exists in the universe.
As Richard Dawkins himself succinctly stated the atheist’s presupposition, “you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it,,, there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
Yet, as Paul Davies observed, it makes a , quote-unquote, “mockery of science” to claim that, ‘at bottom’, there is no ‘rhyme or reason’ to be found for the universe, (nor for life I might add),,
In short, and in conclusion, Darwinian atheists, by holding that, ‘at bottom’, things happen for ‘no rhyme or reason’ whatsoever, are, in fact, undermining a necessary and essential presupposition that lay at the foundation of modern science itself. Namely they are undermining the necessary and essential Judeo-Christian presupposition that the universe is rational, and/or teleological, in its foundational essence.
Supplemental note,
Of note per C. S. Lewis, “unless Reason is absolute—all is in ruins.”
Verse and Quote:
ID folks not invited to the prom? Bummer….