Evolution Nominated as a ‘Most Beautiful Theory’

General relativity and something called emergence are among other ideas also being suggested by scholars. 


Summary: Every January John Brockman, who presides over the Edge.org website, asks scientists and other scholars to consider one thought-provoking question. In previous years these questions have included “how is the Internet changing the way you think?” and “what is the most important invention in the last 2,000 years?” This year, Brockman posed the question “what is your favorite deep, elegant or beautiful explanation?”


Many of the nominated ideas won’t be found in high school or college courses. For instance, computational neuroscientist Terrence Sejnowski suggests our conscious mind does not lead us to make important decisions, but rather we make decisions because of an ancient brain system called basal ganglia or brain circuits, which is unavailable to consciousness. Behavioral scientist Stephen Kosslyn nominates Pavlovian conditioning as the reason for placebo effects. Psychologist Alison Gopnik favors an idea that accounts for why teenagers are so restless and reckless. She explains that two brain systems, an emotional motivational system and a cognitive control system, have fallen out of sync in teens.


But the ideas that got the most votes were arguably “the two most powerful scientific theories ever developed” — Einstein’s theory of relativity and Darwinian evolution. Einstein’s theory of relativity explains gravity as the curvature of space. Theoretical physicist Steve Giddings writes, "This central idea has shaped our ideas of modern cosmology (and) given us the image of the expanding universe."  General relativity explains black holes, the bending of light and even a possible explanation for the origin of the Universe.


But evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins insists, “Darwin's natural selection wins hands down.” Of this theory, which is based on natural selection operating on random genetic mutations, he adds, “Never in the field of human comprehension were so many facts explained by assuming so few.” 


Another nominee is one by neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky. He thinks the most beautiful idea is one called emergence, in which complex phenomena almost magically come into existence from extremely simple components. For instance, the intelligence of an ant colony emerges from the seemingly senseless behavior of thousands of individual ants. "Critically, there's no blueprint or central source of command," says Sapolsky. Each individual ant has a simple algorithm for interacting with the environment, "and out of this emerges a highly efficient colony." 


(Human evolution drawing from Wikimedia Commons.)


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Comment: Of all the theories presented, I would vote for Mr. Sapolsky’s emergence as the “most beautiful idea” because it comes so close to describing intelligent design. Of course, if he is a secularist, he would never use the words “intelligent design,” but how else could you explain how the “seemingly senseless behavior” of individual ants could work together to produce the “intelligence of an ant colony”? Explaining how complex phenomena almost “magically” can come into existence from simple components would make much more sense if God was given the credit and not magic.


Richard Dawkins is one of the most outspoken defenders of evolution, so it is no surprise he votes for Darwinism. However, many people may find evolution to be anything but beautiful because this theory deals with the gruesome “struggle for survival,” with the less-fit dying out and no hope in the future being offered to mankind. In addition, if evolution is so beautiful, why the well-documented repression of popular alternate viewpoints, specifically creation science, in public colleges, in science magazines, and in the media?


Want to know what idea really wins the “beautiful idea” contest hands down, and it is no mere theory.  According to the book of Isaiah, 
“How beautiful on the mountains 
   are the feet of those who bring good news, 
who proclaim peace, 
   who bring good tidings, 
   who proclaim salvation” (Isaiah 52:7)


And the good news is that we have a Savior, Jesus Christ, Who loves us, Who died for us, and Who wants us to be with Him eternally in His beautiful home in heaven (Revelation 21:2). 


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QUESTION OF THE DAY


What’s a good use for an old sock?


Stick your hand in it and use it as a dust rag. Your fingers will prove good at getting around runs, spindles and other tight spaces and the palm will do the rest.


Source: USA Weekend (January 6-8, 2012) 


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