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Paul Davies

Paul Davies at Closer to Truth: Do ultimate questions evolve?

Note: If the questions are really ultimate questions, they can’t evolve. That’s what “ultimate” means: It’s the last one. But perhaps Davies and various readers have a different view. Read More ›

Paul Davies on the gap between life and non-life

A reader notes that Davies says at 37m30s: “What life makes is consistent with physics and chemistry, but is not dictated by physics and chemistry.” Well, by a process of elimination, doesn’t that leave information? Design? And how are things designed without intelligence? At this point, one can only say, Keep talking. Read More ›

Does the answer to the origin of life lie in quantum mechanics?

Sheldon: As a way out of this [origin of life] dilemma, many physicists reach into the religion bag and pull out spooky QM-at-a-distance. But it isn't a solution, it is an admission of failure. For if they had reached a trifle deeper into the bag they would have pulled out Genesis 1. Instead, they have loosed this uncontrollable "dark matter", "dark energy", "dark QM" chaos god on the ordered universe of laws and purpose. Read More ›

Darwin skeptic Robert Shedinger calls out Paul Davies

Shedinger, author of The Mystery of Evolutionary Mechanisms: Darwinian Biology’s Grand Narrative of Triumph and the Subversion of Religion (Cascade, 2019), offers some thoughts on origin-of-life theorist Paul Davies’ decades-long dance around design in nature. Read More ›

Davies and Walker on Origin of life: Life as information

Walker and Davies, 2013: The manner in which information flows through and between cells and sub-cellular structures is quite unlike anything else observed in nature. If life is more than just complex chemistry, its unique informational management properties may be the crucial indicator of this distinction [13]. Unfortunately, the way that information operates in biology is not easily characterized. Read More ›

Paul Davies: Incorporating information into science as a physical quantity

In a world where some believe that consciousness must be a material thing, perhaps it’s not surprising that others seek to see information as a physical quantity. Computer scientist Robert J. Marks would ask, what is the weight difference between a full CD and an empty one? Could we start there? Read More ›

Physicist Rob Sheldon on Paul Davies’ “life writes its own software” claim

Sheldon: If Davies believes that a hierarchy of information can pack more information in, and possibly explain the incredible information content of biology, then there must be something "outside" or "above" the biology that is responsible for the compression algorithm. The only thing Davies hasn't done is name this attribute. Should we suggest a name? How about … intelligent design? Read More ›

Paul Davies: The really tough question is how life’s hardware can write its own software

Davies, author of The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Finally Solving the Mystery of Life thinks we overlook the difficulty and offers a solution: Nature got there first. Read More ›

Paul Davies and the “struggle to define life”

Information is the key? Wait till they discover the Law of Conservation of Information and try applying it to the hapless popular Darwinism that dominates biology today. Read More ›