From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Tue Oct 29 2002 - 13:52:18 GMT
Hi Steve:
> The cake making example is different because the cake is the intended
> outcome while the pattern of the histogram emerges without intent. (I
> couldn't tell if you thought there was an important difference or not.)
Science is blind to the force of "will" or intent because it can't be
measured. To say that the dice have no intention is an assumption, not
a provable scientific fact. What science can't explain or predict it
attributes to chance. Chance really means, "We don't know."
> Is your position that there is a purpose to evolution? If so what is it?
>
> To me, the mother of all morals is a possibility. I think I was sort of
> arguing this when I tried to nail down an understanding of freedom beyond a
> mere idea of unrestricted action. In fact one way I thought of defining
> freedom is as the purpose of evolution.
You've got it. From Lila, Chap. 11:
"But in a value-centered explanation of evolution they are close to the
Dynamic process itself, putting the pattern of life forward to greater
levels of versatility and freedom."
And from Chap. 9:
"Although Dynamic Quality, the Quality of freedom, creates this world in
which we live, the patterns of static quality, the quality of order, preserve
our world."
I've always wondered why evolutionists rarely recognize the development
of consciousness or awareness over the eons, from the prehension of a
virus to the mystic revelation of a man. Each step in this "subjective"
development is a step towards "greater freedom and versatility" of the
organism. But why? The standard answer is "to provide an advantage in
the competition to survive." But then comes Pirsig's question, "Why
survive?" Where did this force of intent or will come from? What is its
source? How do we account for this purposeful behavior?
The science answer: it "emerged." That Jesus rose from the dead is
more believable. At least there were witnesses. :-)
Platt
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