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Ichabod!

17 July 2005 21:06

douglas adams first presents an argument for mans first conception/consciousness of god: man makes tools, man makes things. since man makes things, who made the stuff that man didnt make? a creator, god. snap crackle pop, the idea of a creator god supreme creating the less supreme creation/creatures, and complexity flows from the top down, from god to creation.

douglas adams next presents the theory of evolution, where the flow of complexity reverses from the traditional view. instead, things progress from the simple to the increasingly complex.

next, he asks if the supreme position at the top of the complexity pyramid is to remain empty, without a creator god to occupy it? no, he replies. man fills that niche with the concept of god.

faults i find with this argument.

one. when reversing the direction of the flow of complexity, adams preserves the idea of a complexity pyramid, with one supremely complex being at the top, and running down through to the rule of the numerous small (and presumably, simple). this places man at the level below the concept of god in the "pyramid" of complexity. however, i do not believe that man is any more complex than anything else in the universe. for a terrestrial example, see "weather." for all our science, still unpredictable. there is no pyramid of complexity with god/man at the top, and simple phenomena at the bottom.

so if the pyramid concept doesnt hold, does the flow of complexity from simple to complex hold either? could the primordial soup necessarily be described as "simple", or the formation of the solar system? while darwin's origin of species does show such a trend in complexity, it simply does not extend to the rest of the universe. the laws of physics that hold now, held also at the beginning of life. the fact that a complex organism takes time to develop said complexity does not change the rules it must follow to get there. there is no overall flow of complexity from simple to complex, or vice versa.

i am not a philosopher, or a theologian. i am a scientist and a poet. to me, those laws of physics are god. language is human. to put together language and physics is just about the most beautiful and worthwhile thing i can think of doing.