DNA
29-05-09, 20:31
"God's utility function" : Extract from : "River out of Eden " by Richard Dawkins!
God's utility function :
In this extract from River out of Eden , ,Richard Dawkins examines , playfully but seriously , the true purpose of life , the survival of DNA.
His Lucid & dazzling bestsellers "The selfish gene" , "The blind watchmakers " & now the "River out of Eden" have established Richard Dawkins as a passionate exponent of Darwinian evolution as well as a superb communicator .
he has recently been appointed the first professor in the public understandig of science at Oxford university .
Last part of that Extract & conclusion : Quote :
(.....Theologicians worry away at "the problem of evil" & a related "problem of suffering" ........the British newspapers all carried the terrible story 'bout a bus full of children from a Roman catholic school that crashed for no obvious reason ,with wholesale loss of life .
Not for the first time , clerics were in paroxysms over the theological question that a writter on a London news paper _The Sunday Telegraph _framed this way :"How can u believe in a loving, all powerful God who allows such a tragedy ?" .
The article went on to quote one priest"s reply : "The simple answer is that we don't know why there should be a God who lets these awful things happen .But the horror of the crash ,to a christian, confirms the fact that we live in a world of real values : positive & negative .IF the universe was just electrons ,there w'd be no problem of evil or suffering" .
On the contrary, if the universe were just electrons & selfish genes ,meaningless tragedies like the crashing of this bus are exactely what we should expect , along with equally meaningless good fortune.
Such universe w'd be neither evil nor good in intention.It w'd manifest no intentions of any kind .
In a world of blind physical forces & genetic replication , some people are going to get hurt , other people are going to get lucky , & u won't find any rhyme or reason in it , nor any justice .
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there's ,at bottom, no design, no purpose , no evil & no good , nothing but blind pitiless indifference .
As that unhappy poet A.E.Housman put it :
For nature, heartless,witless nature
will neither care nor know
DNA neither cares nor knows . DNA just is . And we dance to its music ! )
Einde Qote !
Do u think Dawkins is right ???
That there is no good , no evil , no purpose , no design ...just indifference ...???? = no God ....
Tell me 'bout it :
Thanks !
:zwaai:
God's utility function :
In this extract from River out of Eden , ,Richard Dawkins examines , playfully but seriously , the true purpose of life , the survival of DNA.
His Lucid & dazzling bestsellers "The selfish gene" , "The blind watchmakers " & now the "River out of Eden" have established Richard Dawkins as a passionate exponent of Darwinian evolution as well as a superb communicator .
he has recently been appointed the first professor in the public understandig of science at Oxford university .
Last part of that Extract & conclusion : Quote :
(.....Theologicians worry away at "the problem of evil" & a related "problem of suffering" ........the British newspapers all carried the terrible story 'bout a bus full of children from a Roman catholic school that crashed for no obvious reason ,with wholesale loss of life .
Not for the first time , clerics were in paroxysms over the theological question that a writter on a London news paper _The Sunday Telegraph _framed this way :"How can u believe in a loving, all powerful God who allows such a tragedy ?" .
The article went on to quote one priest"s reply : "The simple answer is that we don't know why there should be a God who lets these awful things happen .But the horror of the crash ,to a christian, confirms the fact that we live in a world of real values : positive & negative .IF the universe was just electrons ,there w'd be no problem of evil or suffering" .
On the contrary, if the universe were just electrons & selfish genes ,meaningless tragedies like the crashing of this bus are exactely what we should expect , along with equally meaningless good fortune.
Such universe w'd be neither evil nor good in intention.It w'd manifest no intentions of any kind .
In a world of blind physical forces & genetic replication , some people are going to get hurt , other people are going to get lucky , & u won't find any rhyme or reason in it , nor any justice .
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there's ,at bottom, no design, no purpose , no evil & no good , nothing but blind pitiless indifference .
As that unhappy poet A.E.Housman put it :
For nature, heartless,witless nature
will neither care nor know
DNA neither cares nor knows . DNA just is . And we dance to its music ! )
Einde Qote !
Do u think Dawkins is right ???
That there is no good , no evil , no purpose , no design ...just indifference ...???? = no God ....
Tell me 'bout it :
Thanks !
:zwaai: