From: kalki33!system@lakes.trenton.sc.us
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Re: Probability of Evolution
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:26:54 EST
Reply-To: kalki33!system@lakes.trenton.sc.us
Organization: Kalki's Infoline BBS, Aiken, SC, USA

bvickers@valentine.ics.uci.edu (Brett J. Vickers) writes:

> I looked up the author and title using Melvyl -- The UC's centralized
> library lookup service (it catalogs books from all 9 UC campuses).  The
> book was found at only one of them.  Here is the entry:
> 
> Author:        Thompson, Richard L.
> Title:         Mechanistic and nonmechanistic science : an investigation into
>                  the nature of consciousness and form / Richard L. Thompson.
>                  1st ed. Lynbrook, N.Y. : Bala Books, c1981.
> Description:   254 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
> 
> Notes:         Includes index.
>                Bibliography: p. 239-248.
> 
> Subjects:      Science -- Philosophy.
>                Physics -- Philosophy.
>                Consciousness.
>                Form (Philosophy)
> 
> Call numbers:  UCSC  Science   Q175.T497 1981
> 
> I've never heard of the publisher (I suspect it's some obscure, religious
> publishing house).  Unfortunately, this copy is at UC Santa Cruz, and I
> don't feel like doing an interlibrary book loan.
> 
> Why don't you just summarize this devastatingly straightforward proof,
> Kalki?

The publisher may be obscure in certain circles, but actually they are
the largest publisher of books about Vedic philosophy in the world. This
is a fact. They maintain at least 200 titles and have printed a couple
hundred million books.

You can obtain the book directly from the Bhaktivedanta Institute in San
Diego by calling 619-272-8145.

I have asked Dr. Thompson's permission to serialize the book over this
newsgroup, and am awaiting his reply. Please understand that I am in no
way trying to "back out". It's just that I am less qualified than he to
discuss these matters, and therefore it would be better if the book were
read (or posted here) first, than for me to try to explain it step by
step or to give disconnected quotes. I am not a professional scientist.
I have some training in mathematics and some knowledge of God, that's
all.

The book demonstrates that by adopting the hypotheses of the theory
of molecular evolution, it must follow from these hypotheses that there
is an extremely tiny --virtually infinitesimal-- probability that a
living cell could have arisen by random molecular combination under
natural selection, even given a period of time much longer than the
estimated age of the earth.

The methods used by Dr. Thompson are based on standard
information-theoretic models for determining the information content of
physical systems. The information content of a typical cell is specified
(within bounds) as is the information content of the physical laws which
supposedly govern all possible material interactions. Since the information
content of the known laws of physics, and of simple organic molecules,
is relatively small, whereas the information content of living cells is
quite large, there is the question of how a system of low information
content can "evolve" into one of high information content without there
being a pre-existing source of high information content to draw from.
The balance of the chapter is an investigation of the reasons given by
the discipline of molecular evolution that purport to account for this
strange trend.

I hope this gives you something to digest.

If I do get permission to post it, I am wondering how to type the
mathematical symbols on this ascii terminal! I guess I will just use
"computerese".

Sincerely,
Kalki Dasa


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