Scott_Jackisch comments on Ben Goertzel: The Singularity Institute's Scary Idea (and Why I Don't Buy It) - Less Wrong

32 Post author: ciphergoth 30 October 2010 09:31AM

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Comment author: Scott_Jackisch 07 November 2010 07:54:17PM 0 points [-]

"NS can at best only transfer information from the environment to the genome." Does this statement mean to suggest that the environment is not complex?

Comment author: Perplexed 07 November 2010 09:12:17PM *  0 points [-]

No. As I understand Dembski - at least when he was saying this kind of thing - he admitted that the environment could be complex and hence that NS could instill complexity in evolved organisms. "But", he then suggested, "where did the complexity of the environment come from, if not from a Designer who crafted an environment capable of directing the evolution of man (in His own image, etc.)"

Dembski, these days, admits to being a YEC, but the reason he is a YEC is based on a kind of appeal to Occam. "If we believe in God anyways, for reasons of Theistic Evolution", he seems to argue, "Why not take God at His word and believe in 6 days and the whole schtick?"