The post above struck my funny bone. Yes, I know that it is a bit of an exaggeration of quantum theory (okay maybe more than a bit of an exaggeration). It is somewhat of a variation on the teleological argument for God, which has a long long history. In Judeo-Christian thought, one can find verses in the Old Testament such as “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament show his handiwork.” In the New Testament, Saint Paul says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead …”
And, yes, I know that many modern secularists make fun of the teleological argument. It is not considered as strong an argument nowadays as it was considered in previous decades and centuries. Nevertheless, I think it still has a place in philosophy. The current answer to biologists, such as Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, could be called a type of constrained optimization. For instance, one answer to their arguments goes:
Not knowing the objectives of the designer, Gould was in no position to say whether the designer proposed a faulty compromise among those objectives… In criticizing design, biologists tend to place a premium on functionalities of individual organisms and see design as optimal to the degree that those individual functionalities are maximized. But higher-order designs of entire ecosystems might require lower-order designs of individual organisms to fall short of maximal function. — William A. Dembski, The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design
But, all this was to say that the comic above is a funny comic, if you know about the teleological argument.
Leave a Reply