God Still Speaking in Evolution
Session Notes

  1. Genesis - A Paradigm Shift
  2. Darwinian Evolution[1-4]
    1. process of gradual change
    2. organic evolution: living evolving from the non-living
    3. evolution explains the variety and similarity of creatures
      • variations result from adaptation to different environments
      • similarities result from descending from common ancestors
    4. in every population there exists small random variations, which can be inherited
    5. results in relation by common descent
      • common ancestry further back in time
      • descent with modification
      • no reversals: complex forms never proceed simpler ones
      • comparative anatomy
    6. governed by two processes
      1. natural selection
      2. heredity
    7. in the struggle for survival some of these variations confer a slight competitive advantage, leading over many generations to the natural selection of the characteristics contributing to survival
    8. natural selection
      1. determines general trend of evolutionary change
      2. organisms best suited to environment survive (survival of the fittest)
      3. recently modified to recognize cooperation (such as symbiosis, division of labor by ants) is as important as competition
      4. environment selects organism, but also organism selects environment
        • a change in behavior in response to a change in environment may optimze the survival of a variatioin
        • purposeful behavior + chance -> natural selection
      5. Darwin: depends chiefly on
        • hereditary variability
        • tendency toward over population
        • struggle for existence
      6. heredity variability: different in color, temperment, size
      7. tendency toward overpopulation: produce more offspring than needed to replace current generation
      8. existence: creatures best suited to environment have advantage and survive to pass on their favorable traits
    9. heredity
      1. mechanism for passing on changes
      2. chromosomes bear inherited traits
      3. chromosomes carry larger numbers of genes which are segments of DNA containing the codes for traits
      4. animals and higher plants have double sets of chromosomes
      5. inherit one set from each parent
      6. hereditary characteristics change
        • mutation
        • recombinations
      7. mutation: changes in structure of gener caused by chemicals or radiation (most mutants are unfavorable)
      8. recombination: changes in the arrangement of genes
        • during formation of egg or sperm cells geners from one pair of chromosomes may change places with genes from the other chromosome
        • does not introduce new hereditary traits
        • allows natural selection to act on different combination of traits
    10. speciation
      1. a common species splits into more than one species by
        • geographic isolation: different areas
        • ecological isolation: same area, different habitats
        • genetic isolation: mutation changes sexual traits
    11. evidence for evolution
      1. too slow to detect directly
      2. sources: fossils, adaptation in organisms, geographic distribution of species, comparative studies of species, embryology
      3. fossils
        • most direct
        • age determined by radioactive dating, etc.
        • many gaps in record, since only a relatively few species were preserved
        • reveal evolving stage: simple to complex
      4. adaptations in organisms
        • changes in environment
        • environmental change is gradual generally
        • since 1800s more rapid environment changes: technology, population
        • adaptation noticable
        • peppered moth: white w/ black spots, all black; UK industrial area; black against white birches preyed on by birds; trees sooted up; black not seen and displace white
      5. geo. distr. of species
        • developed in one area
        • speread out until stopped by an environmental barrier: ocean, mountain
        • some carried beyond barrier by ship, wind, etc.
      6. comparative studies
        • many similarities in structural and biochemical characteristics
        • suggest descent from common ancestor (theory)
  3. neo-Darwinism and beyond [1][3][5][8]
    1. embryology
      • development during earliest stages of life
      • embryos of many species resemble each other at certain stages, such as frog = chicken = pig
      • therefore, show a common ancestry (theory)
      • higher order embryoes pass through lower order stages; fertilized mammimal eggs resemble 1-cell organism, then primitive multi-celled invertebrates, athen fish, reptiles, etc.
      • development of embryo recapitulates the evolution of a species (theory)
    2. molecular biology
      • re-enforces common descent
      • DNA
      • genetic code
      • amino acids
    3. genetics
      • evolutionary history: how to make more diverse and more complex kinds is learned [8, p.1]
        1. complexity and diversity can be independent
        2. or they can be related
        3. accumulating over millenia, the genetic capacity to acquire, store, and transmit new information -> increased complexity
        4. increased diversity can stimulate complexity
      • cybernetic:
        1. "The capacity of organisms to gather, store, and process informationhas steadily increased [5, p111]."
        2. in physics there are two things: matter and energy; in biology there is a third: information [8, p14]
        3. matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed[p. 14]
        4. it is the generation of information that make for the complexity and diversity
        5. information stored in the genes
        6. this genetic information is the key to progress
        7. estimate of higher organisms have accummulated generti information from th eCambrian to the present at average rate of .29 bit/generation [8, p.24]
      • chance, law, emergence:
        1. Chance alone is insufficient for complexification; there appears to be attractive forces encouraging it. Evolution is an interplay between chance, law, and emergence[5, p111].
        2. Chance provides flexibility and variability and hence responsiveness.
        3. "Law" provides the vector of complexification and life
        4. Emergence provides self-organization and higher forms greater than the parts: life, consciousness
        5. autopoiesis: innate principle of spontaneous origination of order: organisms, species, ecosystems, and the planet are self-organizing [8, p12]
        6. evolution is a process of natural selection AND self-organization
        7. natural selection can drive order and systems to the edge of chaos, because that's where the greatest possibility of self-organization exists (order out of chaos): fractals [8, p13]
        8. creativity is intertwined with chance and chaos
        9. the boundary between order and chaos
          • contngency in the chaos
          • but order made possible or generated in the chaos
          • life @ the boundary needs information to form or inform matter and eneergy into molecules for life
          • creativity is increased at this boundary
          • e.g. causes of extinction may give rise to new species
          • e.g. in times of stress the mutation rate increases
      • on-going
      • teleos: sentient transcendence
      • values [8]
        1. Evolutionary progress is the system's generation of increased richness in value, such as[p. 14]:
          • diverse species or more complex skills
          • capacity for acquired learning
          • better adaptation for survival
          • thicker fur in a cooling climate
        2. genes are the loci of intrinsic value
        3. rather than consider experiental or conscious valuing, consider "biological" value
        4. then any life form has value
          • a plants dispersing of seeds has "survival" value
          • natural selection preserves survival value
        5. an individual also provides value for the species
        6. reproduction if for the species
        7. species also manifest values, such as defending itself and resisting extinction
        8. similarly a species is woven into a broader community (ecosystem)
        9. the ecosystem has value or "experiences" value
        10. the ecosystem has system values
        11. it is vital for and forming of its individual
          • DNA encodes the individual
          • the ecosystem forms its adaptation
      • not so much survival of the fittest, as survival of the sharing [p.25-31]
        • the gene promotes survival of its kind
        • but individuals (genes, skins, species) do not survival
        • rather promotes the generation of new kinds and thereby the web of life
        • there is not intentionality in genes: genes are "blind"
        • yet genes maintin their own kind and steadily generate novelty
        • hence there is genetic creativity
        • so can a gene be "informed" and be able to "problem solve"?
        • all biology is cybernetic
        • info is stored in the DNA and has "know-how" for life
        • the past is recapitulated in the present with variation
        • but are genes blind inasmuch that they do not see where they are going and the variations are accidental and groping [trial and error]?
        • the "trial and error" is not as random as thought:
          1. variations are not equally probable
          2. genetic and enzymatic controls on the variation process limits the range of trials
          3. there exist different mutation rates at different genetic locations
          4. mutation rates increase/decrease as a function of population stresses
          5. hence the "evolution of genetic intelligence"
        • the dominant/recessive phenomenon is a way of storing variability that wouldn't normally be expressed in a stable environment, but can be expressed under environmental stresses when needed
        • "inclusive fitness [p.44]
          • one's self (as qualified by genes) is replciated in relatives
          • from a survival perspective, even if you don't reproduce, some of "you" continues in cousins, etc.
          • fitness is spread across the whole extended family
          • "my" becomes "ours"
          • therefore, "intrinsic" values goes beyond the individual to the family
          • the "self" is distributed through the family
        • diversity and complexity only possibly when the info found out by genes is widely distributed
        • this preserves the value "discovered by the geneic "search"
        • genetic info is "shared"; counterpoint to "selfish"
        • the survival of the fittest in fact is the survival of the sharers
      • "life is organized vitality [p. 40]."
  4. Where God is in Evolution [5; p111]
  5. Where God is Speaking

References

  1. Barbour, Ian; Religion In An Age of Science; HarperSanFrancisco; ©1990.
  2. Phillip E. Johnson; Darwin On Trial; 2nd Ed. ©1993.
  3. Science and Creationism: A View from the Natural Academy of Science; February 1992.
  4. The Creation; US News and World Report; December 23, 1991.
  5. Barbour, Ian; Where Science Meets Relgion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners; HarperSanFrancisco; ©2000
  6. Murphy, Nancey and George F. R. Ellis; On the Moral Nature of the Universe: Theology, Cosmology, and Ethics; Fortress Press ©1996.
  7. Wegter-McNelly, Kirk; "He Descended into Hell": A Liberation Response to the Use of Kenosis in On the Moral Nature of the Universe; CTNS Bulletin; Volume 18, Number 4; Fall 1998.
  8. Rolston, Holmes III; Genes, Genesis and God: Values and Their Origins In Natural and Human History; ©1999; Cambridge University Press.
©2004 Rev. John A. Mills, Pastor, First Congregational Church, Closter, NJ wislit@worldnet.att.net