tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5203790133523265300.post532106936545963814..comments2009-04-24T12:15:33.853-07:00Comments on Tower Of Ramble: "Too many causes?"Vernhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17749548749451100874noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5203790133523265300.post-90670042232747840642008-09-17T17:27:00.000-07:002008-09-17T17:27:00.000-07:00Sorry Dan, I got WAY messed up in the blogger dash...Sorry Dan, I got WAY messed up in the blogger dashboard and totally missed this comment!<BR/><BR/>Actually, I'm not saying that purpose comes from design. I'm taking much more of a "parallelist" view, that things can/do have a purpose which is independent of whether we think of a think as "designed."<BR/><BR/>For example, a tree falling over on your car in a storm may have happened for some purpose. No one thinks of that as designed, and so it's a cleaner case to think about "where/how" do we see purpose in things.<BR/><BR/>The problem with the notion of "design" is that it's a very human specific thing. We see something different in a wheel than we do in a random pile of twigs, but that's just because we're good at sensing things others like us might have made. To an alien intelligence, or an honest physicist there is no fundamental difference in the random pile and the wheel, because there is no fundamentally difference in the patterns left by the wind vs. neurons and muscles.Vernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17749548749451100874noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5203790133523265300.post-7807983912812401272008-07-30T21:53:00.000-07:002008-07-30T21:53:00.000-07:00Vern, I gotta ask...The notion that purpose must c...Vern, I gotta ask...<BR/><BR/>The notion that purpose must come from design seems, prima facia, a fallacy. Sometimes, purpose can come from design, as in the case of a carriage transporting cargo. Other times - more often, even - purpose comes from, well, re-purposing. <BR/><BR/>The wheel, for example, was not invented to drive an electrical generator - it was borrowed for that purpose. Nonetheless, the purpose of the flyweel in a generator engine IS to drive the belt. <BR/><BR/>Now, in cases where something's "physical" explanation is different from its purpose, you're right - two explanations is not "too many." However, I think you have a long way to go between "the world got here through these astrophysical/geological/biological/cultural processes" and "God made it for xxx, yyy, etc."<BR/><BR/>thoughts?<BR/>-Dan Sawyer<BR/>www.jdsawyer.netJ. Daniel Sawyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16634944509344138905noreply@blogger.com