Intelligent Design

On the topic of 'intelligent design' and 'irreducible complexity, Behe talks about the criterion being the inter-component necessity of all to produce a functional capability.

I think we can go just a little further than this observational summation.

From a systems perspective, the complexity is built up from the non-deterministic grouping of parts that have parsimonious close-coupled interfaces with each other.

The 'non-deterministic' is important. I mean it to convey that the final function is not pre-determined in any of the parts in themselves. This itself tends to point to 'design', indeed from a systems engineering perspective, I would say it lies at the heart of design.

That is, the parts have no in-built teleology that necessitates any particular function, but are brought together a-teleologically (unless by a designer, where the telos would lay) to do something which independently they are unable to do. 

What are the "Gospels"

I've come across a number of references to the gospels/gospel of late.

Muslims 

Muslims seem to think that The Gospel is a book given to Yeshua as the Quran was claimed to be 'given' to Muhammad.

The misunderstanding sets in, it would seem from Christian's casual use of the word 'gospel' to apply to the texts that convey it.

We do it often with a rule book. Typically we would ask that someone passes the rules to them, say, during a game of Scrabble. What they mean, of course is the rule book.

So Mo. thought the gospel was a book. That would make sense for one who had a reputation as an uncritical fountain of stories he had heard but not understood.

As a result Muslims regard the gospels according to the named four as somehow a corruption of what God 'sent down' with Yeshua (or his deprecating Quranic doppelganger 'Issa') 

But the 'gospel' the 'good news' (euangelion) which means 'good news' or 'glad tidings'. The Quran is simply unaware of this.

So the four gospel accounts (which we also shorthand to 'gospels') are four depictions of the work of Yeshua as the foundation of the good news. Fundamentally it is death and resurrection and defeat of death opening the way to fellowship with God through a new life that is the good news.

It is worth noting that some scholars consider the book that Mo. was referring to was the Syriac peshitta, a collection of a number of the books that now make up the Bible

Moderns 

Some detractors of the Gospel, and indeed some followers of Christ I've heard refer to the gospel accounts as 'biographies of Jesus' (sic).

They are not. They are concerned not about his life per se, but about his mission as the Son of Man, Messiah.

They link Yeshua's actions with the OT and show him as Messiah by his actions and words. God is the 'good author' in this way: Yeshua shows us, as well as tells us. Just telling is easy, anyone can do it. Muhammad, for example. 

In modern parlance, the gospel accounts are more like an 'after action' mission report. They sum up the mission, the actions taken, the ground covered, the people and conflicts encountered and dealt with and the final result (it is finished).

Far more focused than a mere biography. The separate accounts are four 'mission reports' by four of Yeshua's band. 

 

Science and metaphysical Christian theism

In his introduction to The Creation Hypothesis' anthology, the Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland lists 10 phenomena that science does not explain, but on which it depends:

1 - the existence of a theory-independent, external world
2 - the orderly nature of the external world
3 - the knowability of the external world
4 - the existence of truth
5 - the laws of logic
6 - the reliability of our cognitive and sensory faculties to serve as truth-gatherers and as a source of justified beliefs in our intellectual environment
7 - the adequacy of language to describe the world (propositional explicability)
8 - the existence of values used in science (e.g. "test theories fairly and report test results honestly)
9- the uniformity of nature and induction
10 - the existence of numbers.

The creation account in Genesis 1:2-2:20 shows these 10 phenomena in God's creating:

1 - the created cosmos (world) is separate from God and external to man while man is within it and comprehends it.
2 - the external world is created in terms of the rational causality set out in the sequence of days of our experience; placing the creation process in our world
3 - God communicates the creation event to  us in language (propositionally with real meaning in our 'space-time' experience of the creation)
4 - God does not deceive us by creating outside history or without sharing his actions with us (thus the natural days place the creation in the continuity of our history)
5 - logic is reflected in the direct causality of the creation, and in Adam's naming of the animals (on the basis of "A" does not equal "not A")
6 - the creation is described in communicable language  (see '3' above)
7 - the creation shows propositional explicability in God creating with language that is meaningful in the creation
8 - the creation account gives us real information congruent with our experience of the world and our perceptual faculties.
9 - the creation is shown to be causally reliable and consistent
10 - God works in countable days that exist in number-like terms of 'evening and morning'.

So to work, science is conducted as metaphysical Christian theism. Nothing to do with 'naturalism' because naturalism gives rise only to...dust.

The simple cell and what it needs.