On Wednesday 16 July I gave a talk at the Inter-faith Centre in Ipswich, Suffolk. The slides are available here. Due to the Google presentation viewer still having glitches, it is advisable to download the presentation.
There were a few noteworthy comments from the audience. The first was quite irrelevant to the subject matter. The computer science perspective, I was told, was not the only one possible (true) and perhaps not as interesting as the psychological or emotional aspect of meeting with God. I agree, that is important but this is beside my point. I have already been accused of 'mechanicism' but it is what seems specifically interesting to me given my professional background. The cybernetics of life vehemently testifying to intelligent agency, to me, deserves attention as a scientific case.
The second comment was that my God is not the God of Spinoza. Thank you for recognizing that!
Thirdly, somebody said that I had greatly underestimated the (creative?) power of selection. Prove it, show it to me on a concrete unambiguous example how selection creates novelty. Just a single yet demonstrable piece of strong evidence, not just the usual evolutionary story telling. In the 21st century this is not enough.
Fourthly, according to an Anglican-Hindu priest (a very strange combination indeed), Dawkins is a saint. I am not commenting that.
There were a few noteworthy comments from the audience. The first was quite irrelevant to the subject matter. The computer science perspective, I was told, was not the only one possible (true) and perhaps not as interesting as the psychological or emotional aspect of meeting with God. I agree, that is important but this is beside my point. I have already been accused of 'mechanicism' but it is what seems specifically interesting to me given my professional background. The cybernetics of life vehemently testifying to intelligent agency, to me, deserves attention as a scientific case.
The second comment was that my God is not the God of Spinoza. Thank you for recognizing that!
Thirdly, somebody said that I had greatly underestimated the (creative?) power of selection. Prove it, show it to me on a concrete unambiguous example how selection creates novelty. Just a single yet demonstrable piece of strong evidence, not just the usual evolutionary story telling. In the 21st century this is not enough.
Fourthly, according to an Anglican-Hindu priest (a very strange combination indeed), Dawkins is a saint. I am not commenting that.
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