In Biology, Replacing Chance with Purpose Is the New Paradigm

Abraham, Aristotle, biology, Chance and Necessity, Chemistry, Christianity, Darwinism, Evolution, God Hypothesis, Intelligent Design, Jaques Monod, Kansas, laws of nature, Mariusz Tabaczek, materialism, Modern Synthesis, molecular biology, natural processes, naturalism, Neo-Darwinism, Nobel laureates, paradigm, physics, purpose, René Descartes, science of purpose, scientific atheism, scientism, St. Thomas Aquinas, teleology, telos, theistic evolution, Thomistic Aristotelianism, Thomists
In my most recent post in this series on the science of purpose, I concluded that the proper means of understanding our world requires that we include both purpose and necessity as fundamental elements of any comprehensive framework. I noted that the flagship phrase of 20th-century scientific atheism, as articulated by Nobel laureate Jaques Monod in his book Chance and Necessity, acknowledged necessity but explicitly and intentionally eliminated purpose from scientific dialogue.  Now some fifty years later we see that Monod’s paradigm has failed. And that the only possible way of understanding life on earth is to replace chance with purpose. Doing so reverses an epistemological trend stretching back almost 150 years. As such, it is incumbent that we fortify and substantiate the basis for what many would see as a revolutionary new paradigm. That is the goal of this essay. In Read More › Source
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Against Anti-LLM and Anti-AI Absolutism

1 Thessalonians, absolutism, Aristotle, Artificial Intelligence, Bible, Carl Rogers, ChatGPT, Christians, Computational Sciences, dopamine, Doug Smith, Education, Edward Thorndike, Eighteenth Amendment, ELIZA program, Frederick Buechner, geography, history, Jacques Ellul, Jaime Escalante, Joseph Weizenbaum, Judeo-Christian tradition, large language models, Laurent Siklossy, liquor, Marshall McLuhan, math, mathematicians, Neil Postman, Open AI, Phillips Exeter Academy, programmed learning, Prohibition, Rogerian therapists, Sam Altman, science education, software, St. Paul, Substack, Technology, Turing test, William Jennings Bryan, [Un]Intentional
Doug Smith has been a software developer for three decades. He writes extensively about the impact of technology on culture. Source
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Jay Richards on an Icon of Intelligent Design and 20 Years of a Bifurcating Culture

Allan CP, Aristotle, astronomy, atheists, bifurcation, Children, Christian civilization, Christians, civilization, Emma Camp, Evangelicals, Faith & Science, gender ideology, Guillermo Gonzalez, Intelligent Design, materialists, New Atheism, Plato, Plato's Revenge, Reason (magazine), Richard Dawkins, Roman Catholicism, Socrates, surgical sexual mutilation, The Privileged Planet, The Science Dilemma, theism, theists, tradcath, wokeness
If wokeness leads to promoting surgical sexual mutilation of children, maybe we need to rethink the whole thing. Source
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How Understanding Points Beyond Physicalism

algorithms, Aristotle, Artificial Intelligence, brain processes, Brown University, cognitive science, computational mechanics, computationalism, computer science, computers, Epistemology, humans, Intellect, James F. Ross, John McCarthy, John Searle, Life Sciences, mind, modus tollens, Neuroscience & Mind, Pat Flynn, philosophy, Roderick Chisholm, Selmer Bringsjord, Thomas Aquinas, triangularity
A computer science professor shows, using logic, how you must be more than mere matter. Source
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How Can We Conceive of Perfection When We Never Experience it?

abstract thought, Aristotle, brain processes, brain state, circle, Concepts, Denyse O'Leary, human exceptionalism, immateriality, Intellect, Intelligent Design, line, logic, materialism, matter, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Perfection, soul, The Immortal Mind, triangle, truth
There are two ways we can think of a triangle. One way is to form a mental image, likely based on a triangle we have seen on a piece of paper. Source
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Eavesdropping in the Platonic Academy 

algorithms, Andreas Wagner, Aristotle, biology, C.H. Waddington, Casey Luskin, creationists, demiurge, Denis Noble, DNA, Erwin Schrödinger, Evolution, evolutionary biology, Günter Bechly, Hans Driesch, Harvard University, Intelligent Design, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lars Löfgren, Michael Levin, microbes, Philosophy of Science, Plato, Plato's Revenge, Platonism, René Descartes, René Thom, Richard Sternberg, Robert Rosen, sequoia trees, Summer Seminar on Intelligent Design, theoretical biology, Tufts University, University of Zurich, vitalism
I can relate to the paleontologist Günter Bechly, who, after hearing Sternberg lay out his thesis, lay awake unable to sleep as he considered the implications. Source
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The Emergence of Freedom: A New Book by James Barham

Aeneid, An Inventive Universe, Aristotle, Darwinism, Evolution, Gerald H. Pollack, Harvard University, human evolution, human spirit, Inkwell Press, Intelligent Design, James Barham, John McDowell, Kenneth G. Denbigh, Latin, Mind and Cosmos, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, natural selection, naturalism, neo-Thomists, Nicolaus Copernicus, philosophy of nature, Philosophy of Science, Richard Dawkins, scientism, teleology, Thomas Browne, Thomas Nagel, University of Texas
Barham’s approach to teleology in nature is, if anything, Aristotelian. Indeed, Aristotle is the most cited person in the index of his book. Source
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Clinical Psychologist Supports Human Exceptionalism

A New Unified Theory of Psychology, animals, Aristotle, behavior, Culture & Ethics, Dogs, emotions, evolutionary biologists, Feelings, Gregg Henriques, human exceptionalism, humans, Marc Bekoff, Michael Egnor, moral choice, Neuroscience & Mind, prejudice, psychology, Psychology Today, Racism, reason, secular humanists, sensations, sexism, speciesism, The Immortal Mind, Thomas Aquinas, Wesley J. Smith
Gregg Henriques, a secular humanist, has developed an approach that accepts human exceptionalism without denying that animals have mental abilities. Source
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What Does Your Brain Do? And What Can It Not Do?

Aristotle, augustine, blood, brains, carbon dioxide, Denyse O'Leary, emotions, free will, heart, Intellect, kidneys, mathematics, Medicine, memories, Montreal Neurological Institute, muscles, Mystery of the Mind, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, oxygen, pain, philosophy, Plato, The Immortal Mind, Thomas Aquinas, urine, Wilder Penfield
A surprising result of pioneering neurosurgery was the discovery that some mental processes could be stimulated in the brain but others could not be. Source
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