By the way, I was thinking about a certain example I was using to refute
Mostafa's arguments and it occurs to me to recommend a book. This is The
Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins. It is available on BARD. The title
is a reference to William Paley's watchmaker. Dawkins does a good job of
refuting Paley, but that is not the point of the book. In fact, it would
be kind of pointless to write an entire book to refute that particular
fallacy. After all, I have done it myself right here in a single email.
The point of the book is to explain evolutionary biology and the overall
theme of the book is to explain how highly complex systems can and do
arise without conscious intervention. Dawkins is an evolutionary
biologist and so he concentrates on how the complexity of life arose and
developed. It has been a very long time since I read it myself. So a lot
of the detail seems to have been lost to my memory. I just might get
around to reading it again because I remember that it was fascinating
reading and I hope that if any of you try it you will find it
fascinating too. And to reassure you, it is a book intended for a lay
audience. Despite Dawkins' credentials as an evolutionary biologist he
does not get too technical in this book.
--
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Carl Sagan
“ The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be
counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be
consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not
determine what's true. ”
― Carl Sagan
