Last week we took up the topic of where biological information comes from, using some illustrations from experiments in the Quandary Den. If you missed an earlier series, the Quandary Den simulates features of dungeon crawlers or escape rooms. A common feature of escape rooms is a code/password/combination lock puzzle. A password is a pretty straightforward piece of information, so perhaps that’s a good place to try some more hands-on intuition building. We’ll try a few different ways to “crack” a password, all of which could be described as exploration with feedback. Hopefully they’ll help us understand how evolution fits into that broad category, and how biological information relates to language information.
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Science Corner: Evolving A Bit
While I assemble responses to the most pressing science & faith questions, I’d like to return to our exploration of evolution, starting with one of the evidently less pressing question. Previously, I introduced you to the Quandary Den, a simulation of a simple game that I paired with an evolutionary algorithm. The goal was to give you some hands-on experience with evolution and the use of simulation in experiments–and hopefully have some fun too. As I was working through responding to the eliminated science & faith questions, I realized I had also illustrated the answer to one of them, about the relationship between information and evolution.
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Science Reader Question: Seated at the Right 01101001 of God
Last week I started a series responding to reader questions about evolution. I explored the idea that God expresses his creativity by defining relationships while leaving matters of form at least partially open for creation to work out. If God does create that way, then an evolutionary process seems plausible as a method for creation. However, I can see where my description of God specifying requirements might seem at odds with my claim that God is continually creating and instead raise questions about deism. Indeed, such questions seem to arise whenever an evolutionary process is proposed for creation. If life is evolving “on its own” then whatever role God might have had, wasn’t it in the distant past? What is there left for God to do now?
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Science Corner: BioLogos Conference Recap, Pt 2
Earlier this summer, I had the privilege to attend BioLogos‘ Evolution & Christian Faith conference. Last week, I shared some of the talks from the conference, with an emphasis on theological topics. This week, I want to highlight some of the scientific topics. I had a hard time choosing, especially since these recordings allowed me to catch up with talks I wasn’t able to attend in person. There are even more talks available here, covering areas I haven’t even begun to address, like science education. [Read more…] about Science Corner: BioLogos Conference Recap, Pt 2