[sword-devel] OT: can you be a Christian evolutionist?

[Chris]

>
>
>A similar anology for evolution is the observation that an earthquake which 
>struck a quarry was able to loft a rock up one stope. This is then 
>extrapolated to ``so it is possible that enough earthquakes would loft the 
>rock up all of the stopes and out of the quarry.'' Well, yes, possible. But 
>*extremely* unlikely.
>
The point is, IF the earthquakes lofted all the rocks up the slopes, as 
unlikely as that
might be, it would not violate a fundamental physical law called
the law of thermodynamics. The laws of probability however may have
many interesting things to say.

>Since life is the issue being addressed, let's look at it a bit closer. Given 
>a universe made entirely out of suitable amino acids, a trillion years, no 
>distance effects or waste products, and a stupendous interaction rate, oh, 
>and by ignoring numerous structural and supply difficulties, we are able to 
>get to the point where a single typical protein is ``only'' out of luck by 
>well over a hundred orders of magnitude. What this tells us is that if we see 
>a universe with as much as a single protein in it, we are seeing a miracle 
>far more staggering than water turning to wine.
>
That's a good argument based on probability, possible ages for the 
universe etc.
Just not about thermodynamics.