Monthly Archives: January 2015

Western values

Posted on 08/01/2015 by Jon Garvey

Dreadful events in Paris yesterday. Amidst ongoing dreadful events in the Middle East, of course. Not to forget an ongoing list of dreadful events perpetrated by anti-creation Islamists over the years. Much of the coverage today is about the need to show fortitude in the midst of attacks on the civilized values of democracy, diversity, tolerance and freedom of speech.

Posted in Politics and sociology | 5 Comments

The bell curves! The bell curves!

Posted on 07/01/2015 by Jon Garvey

After the last post it occurs to me that change ringing is quite a clear illustration of the combinatorial problem in evolution. This is, essentially, that the number of variables involved in any form of genetic evolution based on random variation is so vast that they quickly outstrip the search resources of the universe.

Posted in Philosophy, Science | 17 Comments

In heaven the bells are ringing

Posted on 05/01/2015 by Jon Garvey

This one’s just for fun, to find joy in some mathematical aspects of the creation. I did a post in September about the principle of plenitude, a term coined by historian of ideas Arthur Lovejoy about a pervading concept of mediaeval and early modern thought in which it seemed that God must create everything possible or short change the world and himself. This was seldom stated overtly, being more part of the warp and weft of thought, comparable to the modern tendency to see absolutely everything in evolutionary (rather than, say, static or cyclical terms). The idea was probably at its peak in the late seventeenth century, summed up in … Continue reading →

Posted in Creation, Philosophy | 2 Comments

Y-Adam, mito-Eve and all that

Posted on 03/01/2015 by Jon Garvey

Our regular commenter pngarrison let me know he has just posted a piece on his own blog, explaining the actual genetic situation regarding those often confused concepts of Y-chromosome “Adam”, mitochondrial “Eve”, population bottlenecks and so on. His training is in biochemistry, but with good of experience in genetics too.

Posted in Science, Theology | 6 Comments

Consensus and orthodoxy

Posted on 02/01/2015 by Jon Garvey

In my teens I was for a while a member of a liberally-leaning Congregational church, though myself Evangelical. A hymn not infrequently chosen had the refrain: The Lord hath yet more light and truth To break forth from His Word.

Posted in Science, Theology | Leave a comment