[AUTHOR'S NOTE: The bulk of the original content of this article was published at Examiner.com when I wrote as the Atlanta Creationism Examiner. Unlike previous articles from that source which were only re-formatted and lightly edited, new material has been added that has developed since the article was first published.] Microtubules of the brain How does our brain really work? Are brain cells special? How do brain cells store memories? Computers are modeled after the human brain, and like humans, they have both short-term and long-term memory. For short-term memory, computer allocates space in a storage cache to "remember" information...for example, a calculator application accepts input from a user and must remember the numerical values entered, the operand (in order to know whether to add, subtract, multiply, divide, etc.) and then must store the result of the operation to be displayed as feedback. However, when the application ends or the computer is turned off, the short-term memory is wiped out. Lost forever. As far as long-term memory is concerned for computers, a storage device is required, and the information is literally written to a computer chip, hard drive, flash drive, or some other permanent medium. If you store your data "in the cloud" it only means you're using storage provided by someone else, which might be convenient, but not very secure. Literally, somewhere there must be a physical device which stores your information to be recalled and reused at a later date. So with that in mind, how does a human brain record long-term … [Read more...]
Archives for 2016
Compounded improbabilities
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the final article originally published at Examiner.com in the series on the theory of evolution, on a favorite topic of mine: is it possible to quantify the luck that would be necessary to explain our existence, without invoking a supernatural Creator of all things? The secular approach to eliminating God from creation can take at least two different, diametrically opposed forms. The goal of both is to eliminate a problem called fine-tuning of this universe, described in this article. First, there is the multiverse hypothesis, which improves the probability of "this" (successful) universe by speculating an unknown number of unsuccessful universes were also created at the Big Bang anomaly. The other option is that it may be argued that the creation of the universe was actually deterministic (Grand Unified Theory, or GUT) assuming that this universe had no choice except to exist, and to enable complex life to exist.] Compounded improbabilities Cosmologist Sir Martin Rees has declared that “just six numbers” dictate the nature of our universe. For clarity and ease of discussion, these six values shall be referred to as “cosmic factors” for the remainder of this article. Apparently to avoid giving a divine Creator any credit, Rees said, These six numbers constitute a 'recipe' for a universe. Moreover, the outcome is sensitive to their values: if any one of them were to be 'untuned', there would be no stars and no life. Is this tuning just a brute fact, a coincidence? Or is it the providence of a benign Creator? I take the view that it is … [Read more...]
Supernatural evidence
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is (I think) the fifth installment in the series originally published several years ago, during my tenure as the Atlanta Creationism Examiner. Minor editing and re-formatting to accommodate the differences between the old and new platform have been done on every article, but the original content has otherwise remained unchanged. ] Supernatural evidence We have examined the few real "facts" of evolution. Then we reviewed the conjecture about evolution expressed in the theories of Charles Darwin. Then I suggested an alternative to Darwin's theory of natural selection (evolution theory) which I have called Iterative Creation (IC). And of course, we talked about DNA as a unique and dynamically generated source code for the creation of a new living organism. The remaining question left unasked thus far: is evolution theory clearly superior to IC? Are the theories equally unprovable, or does IC actually hold some advantage over evolution theory? The only way evolution theory can be considered superior to IC is by resorting to scientism. By asserting that evidence somehow "belongs" to science would imply IC can't use the same evidence, presumably because a different standard for scientific method is applied to each theory. At the heart of any scientific argument against any form of creation lies the postulate that a supernatural God is simply impossible to believe. This is a very important point. God is derisively referred to “an invisible man in the sky” by my atheist friends, as a legend or fairy tale. Tales of NDEs and other … [Read more...]
Astral travel
Astral travel [AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is another favorite piece from my days as the Atlanta Creationism Examiner. Had to put it together rather quickly this morning because a link to it was embedded in the next article in the ongoing series on evolution.] Astral travel (or astral projection) is supposedly the ability for a person to enter into a trance so deep they are able to travel great distances without their physical body. Sounds impossible to believe, doesn't it? This writer has to admit to a fair amount of skepticism about this ability, having never experienced it personally. Does that mean the ability doesn't exist, or does it only mean that this one particular individual has not personally experienced it? What evidence (if any) exists to support such an outlandish claim? Psychic Rose Kopp lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. She claims to have an ability to leave her body and visit remote locations, which she does occasionally to assist the police in solving a crime. After a grisly murder was committed in Gonzales, Louisiana, a childhood friend of Police Chief Bill Landry suggested that he ask Kopp for help obtaining information about the robbery and murder of elderly Lillian Phillipe, the third in a series of similar crimes. The serial killer left no fingerprints or DNA, making the police very frustrated with the lack of progress in the case. Kopp agreed to help. She asked Landry to send a picture of the victim and one personal item the victim had touched. Three more homicides were committed in Landry's jurisdiction before Kopp received the package from … [Read more...]
Iterative creation
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Fourth installment in the series of articles originally published as the Atlanta Creationism Examiner about existential questions and the theory of evolution.] Iterative creation A new Facebook friend sent me a link to an article by a scientist advocating his version of Divine Evolution, another reason I now think iterative creation might have been a better name for my own personal philosophical beliefs. Stuart Kauffman wrote in the Edmonton Journal, I believe that we no longer need a Creator God, we need God's creativity. In other words, Kauffman believes in a form of theistic evolution ala Francis Collins, where we have a creator God who doesn’t really do anything but get the ball of evolution rolling, more deist than theist. Creation theory is concerned about the origin of things. If there is reason to believe that a supernatural entity of extraordinary intellect caused our universe to happen, why not believe that same Creator is directly responsible for the origin of life? Why would God put in all the work to set up the universe for life but lose interest before creating it? What exactly are we saying here? Do "we" believe that God suffers from some sort of Attention Deficit Disorder, or what? The so-called facts of evolution and the scientific evidence used to support my hypothesis of iterative creation are one and the same. The conjecture about evolution is where the theories significantly differ. Iterative creation begins with a bang. Actually, it begins with the Big Bang. The Big Bang Theory makes sense, mostly because scientific … [Read more...]
