Science and Teleology:Dice or Deity?

byDavid C. Bossard

Physical & Biological Beginnings and what they say about teleology.

Fred Hoyle (1915-2001, astronomer) "any scientist who examined the evidence" would infer "that the laws of physics have been deliberately designed."

Lecture in Mervyn Stockwood, ed. Religion and the Scientists SCM 1959, p.64

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Louis Agassiz (1807-1873, biologist, geologist) "The plan of the whole creation had been maturely considered long before it was executed."

Louis Agassiz, Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America (1860), Vol I, p.117.

Four Origins

• Origin of the Universe (1940s)*• Origin of the Elements (1950s)• Origin of Life Itself (1980s)• Origin of Complex (Visible) Life (1830s; 2010?)

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* Dates give approximate time that the present consensus viewof science was first formulated.

Good Reading

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Origin of the Universe – 13.77 Billion years ago (NASA WMAP project)

Cosmic Inflation10-36 Seconds after the Big Bang

Density after Inflation: Precise value must be accurate to ±1 part in 10-24 — 1 part in a trillion trillion at 10-9 sec.!

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Origin of the Universe

Ned Wright's Cosmology Tutorial (UCLA)

Fred Hoyle* Quote"If this were a purely scientific question and not

one that touched on the religious problem, I do not believe that any scientist who examined the evidence would fail to draw the inference that the laws of nuclear physics have been deliberately designed with regard to the consequences they produce inside the stars."

Fred Hoyle, Lecture in Mervyn Stockwood, ed. Religion and the Scientists SCM 1959, p.64

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Origin of the Elements

* Co-Author of B2FH = Synthesis of the Elements in Stars (Rev Mod Phy 1957) by Geoffrey & Margaret Burbidge, William Fowler, and Fred Hoyle.

Stellar Nucleosynthesis of Carbon-12

Hoyle's solution: There must be a resonance 12C which causes the triple collision to "hang around" long enough for Carbon to result. (He calculated the precise energy level required – previously unknown but subsequently discovered by the Burbidges on Hoyle's urging).

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Origin of the Elements

Hoyle's Remark"A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question."

Fred HoyleSteady-State Cosmology Revisited,

Cardiff Press, 1980.

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Origin of the Elements

Origin of Life – Early Earth

Moon formed from a collision of the proto-Earth with a Mars-size object about 4.4 Bya

Heavy bombardment ends; Molten Earth and cratered Moon around 4.1 Bya. Earth cooling.

Global ocean condensed by 3.9 Bya as the Earth surface cooled. No permanent dry land. Heavy volcanic activity made temporary dry land which enormous tides eroded to create shallow tidal zones.

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First Life• Earliest evidence about 3.8 Bya (Organic Carbon)

– Ocean Temperature about 140-160° F (~ Temperature of Pasteurization)

• IMPLIES CARBON FIXING BY (Complex) Rubisco Molecule. Schopf: "Carbon isotopic data [is] consistent with

the presence of RuBisCo-mediated CO2-fixation." NOTE:

RuBisCo is the ONLY known enzymeused to fix Carbon in living cells(In Sugar cycle of Photosynthesis)

— Perhaps implies photosynthesis? (Schopf)

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Origin of Life

First Life

• So… Life shows up almost as soon as the Earth could host it!– Some conclude that the Earth must have been seeded by life

from space. – Far too short to evolve naturally?

• Earliest actual fossils: 3.65 Bya (Schopf – see next slide)

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Origin of Life

Schopf's Fossils*

J. William Schopf, The Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils. First published in 1987.

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Origin of Life

Conclusions Re. First Life

• First life appears as soon as the Earth cooled to the point that life could exist – within 100 My.• So… either seeded from space or evolution worked really,

really fast, or ….

• Within ±400 My complex cyanobacteria were on Earth

– With photosynthesis, Carbon fixing AND Nitrogen fixing! These involve exceedingly complex molecules and elaborate multi-step development pathways.

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Origin of Life

What IS Life?

• ALL species (from simplest to most complex) use the same complex Central Dogma which is implemented in the same basic way using the same coding schemes, the same complex ribosomes, etc. ["Same" means close enough for government work.]

DNA->RNA->Protein->Cell Activity

ACROSS ALL SPECIES -- BACTERIA TO HUMANS

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Origin of Life

Smallest Possible Genome?1998 NRC Symposium Conclusions:

• DNA with 250-400 different genes for a species dependent on sources of organic food.

• DNA with 750 different genes for a true autotroph (all inorganic food)

- Figure about 1000 base pairs per gene on average.

** NOT JUST "Life as we know it" but ANY VIABLE SORT OF LIFE.

CONCLUSION: THE "MARS FOSSILS" CANNOT BE FOSSILS OF ACTUAL LIFE: Volume too small by factor of 1000!

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Origin of Life

NASA image of the "Mars Fossil" (1996)

The Origin of Complex Life

• The Fossil RecordWilliam (Strata) Smith's Discovery (1790s)

• The phanerozoic (visible life) strata: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, etc.

• The Fossil Record: The Magnates Walk First(See handout)

• Search for the first Eukaryotes

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Eukaryotes: The Biological Big Bang"The origin of eukaryotes is a huge enigma and a major challenge for evolutionary biology."

E. V. Koonin (2010)Koonin EV, "The origin and early evolution of eukaryotes in the light of phylogenomics" Genome Biology 2010, 11:209.

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Origin of Complex Life

The First Eukaryote(Following Koonin)

• Arose around 2 Billion years ago• Now there are 5 strains of Eukaryotes• The search for the original "ur-Eukaryote"

indicates that it was more complex than ANY of the five current strains.

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Origin of Complex Life

The First Eukaryote(Following Koonin)

=>How could that be? Does it imply planning?"Major transitions in biological evolution show the same pattern of

sudden emergence of diverse forms at a new level of complexity ... In each of these pivotal nexuses in life's history, the principal 'types' seem to appear rapidly and fully equipped with the signature features of the respective new level of biological organization. No intermediate 'grades' or intermediate forms between different types are detectable."

Koonin EVKoonin, E.V., The Biological Big Bang model for the major transitions in evolution. Biol Direct 2007, 2:21

=> Back to the Magnates Walk First?WELL, I'LL LEAVE IT AT THAT!

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Origin of Complex Life

BACKUP SLIDES FOLLOW

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Isaac Newton and Stability of Earth's Orbit

Laplace's Famous Remark to Napoleon (about 1802) – "I had no need of that hypothesis"

"Laplace went in state to beg Napoleon to accept a copy ofhis work, and the following account of the interview is well

authenticated, and so characteristic of all the parties concernedthat I quote it in full. Someone had told Napoleon that the

book contained no mention of the name of God; Napoleon,who was fond of putting embarrassing questions, received itwith the remark, "M. Laplace, they tell me you have written

this large book on the system of the universe, and have nevereven mentioned its Creator." Laplace, who, though the most

supple of politicians, was as stiff as a martyr on every point ofhis philosophy, drew himself up and answered bluntly, "Je

n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là." W.W. Rouse Ball, A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (6th Ed. 1915) p417.

… But Laplace was wrong! Chaotic Orbits

Newton puzzled about the stability of the Earth's orbit … suggested in Principia Mathematica, his most famous work,that God had to "tweak" the orbit to keep it stable.

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Fact: Earth's Orbit is Unstable

-- Solar System is chaotic, as is (almost) every multi-body system*• Can't predict beyond about 100 My.

-- For advanced life to exist on earth, the orbit must be in the "habitable zone" continuously for nearly 4 billion years.

-- It's even worse than Newton could have known:Complex Life is the end result of a steady development

that took almost 4 billion years. Even so, life developed at an incredibly rapid pace.

As far as we can determine today, the probability of spontaneous formation of a stable multi-body system is vanishingly small, zero for all practical purposes.[It's so small that a physicist would look for a

law to explain it, but none is known to date]

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Tree of Life

Note Archaea position. Moretowards Eukaryota than bacteria.

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In Conclusion…"Darwinian biologists are very often persuaded that there is a conspiracy afoot to make them look foolish.

In this they are correct. Although Darwin's theory is very often compared favorably to the great theories of mathematical physics on the grounds that evolution is as well established as gravity, very few physicists have been heard observing that gravity is as well established as evolution. They know better and they are not stupid."

David BerlinskiThe Devil's Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions,

Basic Books (2009) pp. 185, 191.

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