The Blind Watchmaker, so far, has influenced the way I think about the world, existence and life forms. The first chapter, about echolocation in bats, is fascinating. I also enjoyed reading about the different philosophies involved in taxonomy, the classification of species. On page 15, Dawkins reveals his task: "My task is to explain elephants, and the world of complex things, in terms of the simple things that physicists can either understand, or are working on. The physicist's problem is the problem of ultimate origins and ultimate natural laws." He tries to explain complex things in an "utterly simple way." When thinking about evolution you immediately ask yourself how could such complex animals and organs have possibly come about without a design and designer (hence the name of the book - one can't imagine finding a watch and believe there was no watchmaker).
So all this talk about creationism....should we all just toss out the concept of a god? Some people need to see this in person to believe it. Where is this proof of a "designer"? If the concept of god is thrown out of the picture, would there still be a belief in miracles? Dawkins shows that miraculous creation is extremely rare and probably would not occur. I think that miracles aren't as rare as he believes they are, but then again how would I prove that? In the book Dawkins talked about how he designed a computer program to demonstrate how a non-thinking, non-caring evolutionary process works. This program would conjure up random designs and he would select the designs that most resembled some sort of creature. But I noticed something, Dawkins showed evolution with this example, however, how did the computer come to be? It cant design itself, there was obviously a "designer" who created this machine, am I right? Could evolution be a process of creation or design? Is creation and evolution one in the same?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Melina, your comment about the computer needing a designer was articulated very nicely and was thought provoking too. That has always been what amazes/confuses me the most about life; if we could rewind time like a movie, at what point can you rewind no further? It's a question that has been asked over and over again by many, and I doubt we'll ever know.
As for miracles, I only believe in once for certain: the fact that we exist at all. Whether we're here by evolution, design, or both, just think of how much had to happen exactly as it did to get us here! And we're not just alive, but we're capable of thinking, feeling, and we are able to ponder these mysteries. That's pretty miraculous (and awesome) if you ask me.
Danielle- you are seriously just too cute with all your philosophical thinking and whatnot. But I agree with you, it's everyone's own personal decision to believe in what they may, but the only thing that is certain is that we're here and we have such amazing abilities that no other species has, as far as we know. Melina, I liked your comment on the computers; if evolution created us, what created evolution? Or is evolution it? Maybe you're right, maybe evolution and design are the same thing. Maybe they are more closely connected than we think...what if we're simply wasting our time trying to figure out what started it all, because it's all somehow interconnected? This goes along with what I said in another comment; I really do think that religion and science are more closely connected than we think. Maybe, instead of using the two to disprove the other, we should be using both to reinforce the idea of something much bigger than both of them.
Bring it on, Goldberg, I know you'll have a lot to say about this.
I like how you brought up the analogy of the computer needing a designer to exist. Like Danielle said, it was thought provoking. I agree with Danielle that regardless of how we got here it's amazing how complex we are and that we are still in existence. Other organisms around us do not have the capabilities we do. They don't live in such advanced or complex societies as us. I don't know about you, but I think that is a gift. This makes us more "fit" to survive. Also, I still don't think creation and evolution are the same thing.
Post a Comment