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Implications and Applications for Life in the Universe |
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Irreducible Complexity goes right to heart of the question of how life began and developed. It challenges the notion that the origin of all life on Earth is the result of the random processes of nature which after billions of years eventually brought about the first cells. It doesn't question the ability of the theory of evolution to explain much of the biodiversity of the Earth but it does raise fundamental questions about how some of the most basic and yet most complex functions of life came about. This is an important question for anyone who wants to understand life in the universe.
One of the reasons that evolution is so hotly contested is because people have often thought that if life could be shown to arise out of a long series of biochemical trial and error on the part of the universe, then human life has a lesser value. If human life evolved from apes who evolved from mice or whatever then how can we claim that we are anything special? |
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We think that one of the reasons for this problem arises from the fact that scientific evidence for evolution creates a temptation for scientists to make themselves philosophers. Science is the study of physical world but questions of value or meaning are not science questions - they are questions of philosophy. It must also be remembered that science relies on philosophy for its defense of its whole existence. Science can't reply to Descartes demonic deceiver objection to reality because science must presuppose that the world it measures and studies really exists.
So for us as students we have to remember the strengths of science as a tool for gaining knowledge but also its limitations. This is will make us better scientists and better philosophers - and probably lower our blood pressure by a bit too.
There are those who wish to dismiss credible evidence of evolution because they fear their philosophical implications it might have on human life. Then again there are those who wish to dismiss out of hand any evidence of the limitations of evolution because of a previously conceived belief in the non-existence of God. If people just a relaxed a bit about the philosophical implications of scientific endeavors then we might get better science and less cat fighting. |
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