Tuesday, 18 July 2023
Go to the ant and be instructed?
Ants Build Landmarks for Navigation
Picture being alone on a featureless planet. You’ve just left your underground station and are seeking minerals necessary to supply the base. Soon, the station entrance vanishes from sight as you continue searching. When you find the minerals, you turn around and have forgotten the way home! The horizon all around you is a monotonous waste. You wish you had left breadcrumbs like Hansel and Gretel, or better yet, had built a tall visible tower where the base is.
This is the plight faced by Cataglyphis fortis ants that live on a salt pan in Tunisia. Tree ants and rock ants do not have this problem; they have plenty of landmarks. But the ones that live on the salt pan are surrounded by a white, flat horizon in all directions. Along the shoreline there are visual cues, but those out in the middle of the playa have few to none. The ants face death from heat exhaustion as they forage under the hot sun alone, walking fast to keep their feet from overheating. Scientists from Germany were intrigued how they can almost always navigate their way back to the nest.
Eric Cassell discussed ant navigation in Animal Algorithms, noting that with brains only a quarter the size of a honeybee brain, ants “produce exquisitely efficient, robust navigation in complex environments” with their 250,000 neurons. As mentioned for the salt pan, simple environments without landmarks can be no less challenging. The situation calls for exceptional methods of path integration, especially for solitary foragers like C. fortis. For path integration to work, the ants need a neural compass and neural odometer and memory to store the global vector, Cassell says. The global vector can also be informed by odor trails, a polarized light compass and sun compass, and by landmarks.
Landmark Foresight
The successful strategy of C. fortis ants was revisited recently in Current Biology by Freire, Bollig, and Knaden. Their observations and experiments showed that the ants build landmarks on the journey out — but only when needed. Commenting on the research in the same issue, Cornelia Buehlmann rhapsodized about the architectural abilities of ants and many other creatures.
When we look at structures built by animals, we instantly appreciate that animals are naturally better architects than most humans. For example, beavers build fascinating constructions containing dams and dome-shaped lodges; birds construct elaborated nests; badgers form setts consisting of extensive underground networks of tunnels and chambers; termites build enormous mounds that can be a few metres in height; and ants build amazingly complex nest structures in many sizes and shapes. The key purpose of most homes is to provide a safe shelter for its inhabitants. Animals need to be safe from harsh weather conditions, hide from prey or house their offspring. Most animals have optimised the way of building their homes to get the best possible protection. Termites and ants, for example, have the ability to build nest mounds that allow perfect thermoregulation and ventilation and also protect from occasional flooding. Of course, nest structures can also have other functions: bird nests, for example, can play a role in sexual selection. A new study reported in this issue of Current Biology by Freire et al. now shows that nest hills from desert ant colonies not only provide a safe home but that they are built as visual landmarks and are crucial for successful navigation.
The height of the nest hill is one strategy used by C. fortis ants for navigation. The entrance hill can be up to 10 cm high, visible tens of meters away. Some foraging ants, though, travel up to 1 km away, beyond line-of-sight visibility. This new measurement, longer than previously recorded for this species, shows that ants must be able to use multiple cues for path integration.
Experimental Setup
To see if the ants use their tall nest hills for navigation, the research team removed 16 nest hills at sites deep in the salt pan too far out for visual cues from the shoreline. They placed cookie crumbs at various distances to tempt foragers to venture out. Adjacent to half of the nest entrances, they placed 50-cm black cylinders as artificial landmarks, then followed individual foraging ants at a safe distance. They found that the ants were able to use the artificial landmarks to get back, but navigation was impaired without the cylinders. At those sites, they observed the ants inside the colony busily rebuilding their nest hills. This proved that the height of the nest hill is important as a visual landmark, not just for flood protection or thermoregulation. Buehlmann comments,
These results show that ants are less likely to build these hills when other landmarks are available. This is a fascinating finding that suggests that ants sensibly decide whether it is necessary to build a nest hillthat facilitates the accurate localisation of the nest entrance.
To Buehlmann, this implies that “Small-brained animals have the cognitive ability to control the colonies’ navigational success.” As a result, fewer individuals die of heat exhaustion or are killed by a predator.
Foraging in the salt pan is a race against time. About 20 percent of the foraging ants that were displaced by the researchers died in the desert sun while trying to find their way back. Other arthropods routinely die in the heat, too, providing a main source of food for the C. fortis ants. The cookie crumbs were undoubtedly a treat. One ant got as far as 2 km out but didn’t make it back. The record for distance and successful return with its cookie crumb was 1.1 km — probably near the limit of its physical ability. So far from its visual cue, it must have relied on other cues to successfully integrate its path back home.
Investment Wisdom and Information Flow
The importance of having a tall nest was a surprise to the research team:
We were surprised that Cataglyphis ants not only build their own nest-associated landmarks but also do so readily when deprived of other visual cues necessary for navigation. A colony’s investment into building a nest hill is justified when other guiding visual cues are absent, as fast and efficient homing is evidently paramount for survival in the harsh habitat of the salt pan. However, as soon as other visual cues are present, the investment does not seem justified anymore and no nest hill is rebuilt.
The whole colony must be involved in the investment of having a tall landmark.
Foraging is usually the last task in the life of a Cataglyphis worker, while the digging involved in building the nest hill is often performed by younger ants. This calls for some kind of information flow between the older foraging ants that face the lack of visual cues surrounding the nest and their younger nestmates responsible for building the nest-defining landmark.
How Do They Know?
If the younger ants do the work of rebuilding the nest hill, Buehlmann wonders how they know to get to work on the project.
If so, how do they know whether there is a lack of nest-defining cues around the nest? At the start of an ant’s foraging career, ants do well-choreographed learning walks around the nest. Their general purpose is the acquisition of information about the visual surrounds of the nest with relation to celestial compass cues. Future experiments will need to reveal the mechanisms of the described nest building behaviour and show who is triggering the hill re-building. It will be exciting to learn how individual foraging and navigation relates to colony-level nest building activities and if and how information is shared between nestmates about the need to build a nest hill for navigational purposes.
Beyond Machinery
In this extreme case of life-or-death navigaton, the ants show themselves remarkably well equipped. They are born into the world with sensors, algorithms, and integrated systems of moving parts supplied by nutrients and machines that enable them to walk fast under the hot sun and perform sophisticated navigation. But more is required.
Of interest in the context of the design debate, information flow is once again shown to be central to the story. Having neurons packed into a tiny brain is important, but neurons are useless without information. Information is an intangible, nonphysical, conceptual reality that makes life work. Information is the substrate on which life operates, and wisdom is the effective use of information. It can be programmed into code, but wisdom is the bequest of a beneficent and capable mind.
On the metaphysics of science?
Can Science Escape Faith-Based Beliefs? Maybe It Needs Them!
Physicist and astronomer Marcelo Glieser offered some thoughts recently on faith and science, noting that the scientific revolution has hardly changed the picture of faith much: “the great scientific advances of the past four centuries have not radically diminished the number of believers” in transcendent realities
If science is to help us, in the words of the late Carl Sagan, by providing a “candle in the dark,” it will have to be seen in a new light. The first step in this direction is to admit that science has fundamental limitations as a way of knowing, and that it is not the only method of approaching the unattainable truth about reality. Science should be seen as the practice of fallible humans, not demigods. We should confess our confusion and acknowledge our sense of being lost as we confront a Universe that seems to grow more mysterious the more we study it. We should be humble in our claims, knowing how often we must correct them. We should, of course, share the joy of discovery, the achievements of human inventiveness, and the importance of doubt.
MARCELO GLEISER, “FAITH-BASED BELIEFS ARE INESCAPABLE IN SCIENCE,” BIG THINK, JUNE 28, 2023
As he implies, there’s no reason why it should. Science, for better or worse, is a faith-based enterprise. Along with many easier quests, scientists continue to pursue outliers like the origin of life, whether there is life in remote star systems, and the nature of consciousness. Many such topics border on metaphysics and may well involve imponderables. But then finding the right answer might not be as important in some cases as developing the right questions.
Why must scientists have faith that we can make progress in understanding our world? Political analyst M. Anthony Mills proposes at least three general ideas about what science does. What we expect science to do for us largely depends on which one of them we adhere to.
First Model
The first is what we might call the accumulationist model of scientific progress. According to this model, science progresses through the steady accumulation of data, facts, or information. The guiding metaphor here is the container: scientists go out and find bits of knowledge and add them to the container. Scientific progress is therefore a cumulative process, linear and gradual.
M. ANTHONY MILLS, “WHAT DOES ‘SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS’ MEAN, ANYWAY?” THE NEW ATLANTIS, SPRING 2023
This model is popular but it can lead us astray. “Science will find the answer!” is only meaningful if the question is framed in a way that science can address. Science can’t tell us whether we are our brother’s keeper, whether it profits us to gain the whole world if we lose our souls, or whether some unfortunate person’s life is worth living. Unfortunately, science is sometimes misused to add apparent weight to a given answer, when the question is really one of ultimate spiritual values, not of science.
Second Model
Another model is what Mills calls “Kuhnian,” after the famous philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996), who introduced the concept of paradigm shifts in science:
According to this account, progress is not linear and gradual; it is punctuated by moments of profound conceptual change and innovation. There are periods of relative calm — what Kuhn termed “normal” science — during which progress looks a lot like it does to the accumulationist. But these periods are interrupted by crises, when prevailing theories break down. Rivals emerge, challenge the consensus, ultimately overthrow a prevailing paradigm, and take its place, as when relativistic and quantum physics dethroned classical physics. These are the scientific revolutions that Kuhn called “paradigm shifts.”
M. ANTHONY MILLS, “WHAT DOES “SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS” MEAN, ANYWAY?” THE NEW ATLANTIS, SPRING 2023
When we are contemplating a vast historical sweep, Kuhn’s theories are indeed helpful. But on the ground, we usually can’t know for sure whether we are living in a massive paradigm shift. Theories rise and fall all the time. Which of the changes matter? For example, findings from the James Webb Space Telescope upended a variety of assumptions but how much they will change the basic paradigm remains to be seen.
Third Model
He calls the third model Baconian, after the early modern philosopher of science Francis Bacon (1561–1626):
According to the third model, however, science progresses not by extending existing scientific paradigms, nor by resolving problems or crises internal to science. Instead, science progresses by grappling with problems posed to it from outside by social, political, and economic needs. We recognize scientific progress not by advances or innovations in our theoretical knowledge but by whether and to what extent our theories help us solve practical problems. Does science generate technological breakthroughs, contribute to economic growth, or help us solve pressing social and political problems?
M. ANTHONY MILLS, “WHAT DOES “SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS” MEAN, ANYWAY?” THE NEW ATLANTIS, SPRING 2023
Of course, if we rely entirely on the third model, we might reject science that isn’t telling us what we want to hear, even if what it is telling us is true and important.
Generally, as Mills acknowledges, we must try all three models to see how much each can contribute to our understanding. But each model requires an initial input of faith: Faith that a big picture will emerge from small contributions (Model 1), faith that we will recognize when theories must change (Model 2), and faith in a bigger picture of the universe that we don’t allow our current issues to completely obscure (Model 3).
No matter how scientists navigate between models, Gleiser thinks that, for creativity in science, faith is indispensable:
A scientist therefore must base their approach on an imponderable process that some call a hunch or an intuition. This is an intellectually guided expression of faith in how the scientist imagines the world to be. There is no way to venture into the unknown without this guiding light, and that light comes from a source that is not completely known. This is where science meets faith.
MARCELO GLEISER, “FAITH-BASED BELIEFS ARE INESCAPABLE IN SCIENCE,” BIG THINK, JUNE 28, 2023
It’s hard to imagine creativity in science working any other way.
Finding context for the sophistication of primeval technology
Something Is Missing from the Materialist Framework
In sketching here what I have called the science of purpose, I have argued that the best way to topple the materialist paradigm is to reverse the fundamental concepts of structure and function. (See, most recently, “Replacing Chemistry with Purpose.”) The framework of materialism is based on randomness, from which, combined with natural selection, any structure theoretically can arise. In this way of thinking, over billions of years, randomly generated structures accidentally began to perform functions, resulting in life on Earth as we know it. That is, all the seemingly designed function in the biosphere is simply a result of randomly generated structures. The appearance of design is an illusion.
What is not an illusion, not even to materialists, is the nearly unfathomable complexity of function carried out, nanosecond by nanosecond, in every living creature since life first arose. From the time you started reading this article, perhaps 60 seconds ago, trillions upon trillions of discrete exquisitely tuned chemical reactions took place in your body. And that has been going on since the time that your father’s sperm met your mother’s egg.
And so of course no one argues the fact that function is real.
But Is It Designed?
The funny thing about function is that it is utterly dependent on context. You could have cells with insulin receptors so that glucose is allowed into the cytoplasm from the extracellular compartment. That chemical reaction, even by itself, is enormously complex. But then what? Without all the necessary enzymes to convert glucose and oxygen into ATP, which is another 20 or so extraordinarily exquisite metabolic steps, the entry of glucose into the cell by itself is meaningless. Purpose is only served when the entire series of molecular events achieves the end, the telos, that it was designed to accomplish: benefit the host.
This straightforward analysis creates a conundrum for the materialist who wants to maintain that function emerges out of randomly generated structures. Let’s say the primordial soup randomly generated lipid-encasing vesicles that let glucose in and out. You might call this a mechanical operation, but it is not a function. Function only has meaning when it serves a purpose, and purpose only materializes when it serves a self.
It Is Really That Simple
Function and purpose are meaningless terms absent a self that benefits from their realization. You can pound a board with a hammer all you want. But until you put a nail between the hammer and the board, so that the board attaches to some other object that creates a structure that achieves the end that the carpenter intended, you have accomplished nothing. No function has been carried out. No purpose served.
Professor Terrence Deacon, a distinguished biological anthropologist as well as a widely published author and materialist, has described this confusing state of affairs, even coining a word, “ententional,” to help to characterize it. In his book Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter, he asks how “teleological appearances of living processes [can] be accounted for…Investigators could neither accept ententional properties as foundational nor deny their reality, despite this apparent incompatibility.” (p. 147)
Scientists have learned over the centuries that when a fundamental theoretical impasse is encountered, we do not blame nature. We must blame the theory that fails to account for the observed natural phenomenon.
Something is missing from the theoretical framework of natural science if it cannot explain the function and purpose that are ubiquitous in life. And yes, the answer is there in plain sight in Professor Deacon’s own words. The truth is that “intentional” properties are foundational. They are the genesis of all purpose in life.
Monday, 17 July 2023
Sunday, 16 July 2023
Luddites :a brief history.
Luddite
The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers which opposed the use of certain types of cost-saving machinery, often by destroying the machines in clandestine raids. They protested against manufacturers who used machines in "a fraudulent and deceitful manner" to replace the skilled labour of workers and drive down wages by producing inferior goods.[1][2] Members of the group referred to themselves as Luddites, self-described followers of "Ned Ludd", a legendary weaver whose name was used as a pseudonym in threatening letters to mill owners and government officials.[3]
The Luddite movement began in Nottingham, England and spread to the North West and Yorkshire between 1811 and 1816.[4] Mill and factory owners took to shooting protesters and eventually the movement was suppressed with legal and military force, which included execution and penal transportation of accused and convicted Luddites.[5]
Over time, the term has been used to refer to those opposed to industrialisation, automation, computerisation, or new technologies in general.[6]
The irrationality of created time and space.
One particularly circular line of reasoning re:the negation of the monarchy of JEHOVAH. Is the argument that Jesus cannot in fact be the first creation if through him all other things were created because all other things must include time and space.
Apparently no creating can happen outside of time and space.
Obviously the one thinking up this "defense" of the eternity of the Son needs to think some more the problem of creating outside of time would apply to any creation including time and space if these were made the first creations. There would be no here or now(as these are temporal and spatial delineations) in which any emergence of a created time or space could occur.
Not to mention that a finite time and space would cancel free moral agency.
In the scriptures time and space are purely abstract values that can neither be created nor destroyed . Thus there would be no need create time or space.
Psalms ch.90:2NIV"Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting(olam) to everlasting(olam) you are God."
Time is permanent like JEHOVAH whom it describes
1Kings ch.8:30NIV"Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive."
So there is an eternal place outside of the creation where JEHOVAH the unmoved mover is permanently stationed.
We know that this dwelling is outside the creation because
Verse 27NIV"“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, CANNOT contain you. "
JEHOVAH CANNOT and need not enter his creation to accomplish his will. It is this fact that vindicates him as a perfect creator. Indeed that is the purpose of the manifesting of JEHOVAH's logos to vindicate JEHOVAH as creator.
John ch.8:50NIV"I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge."
Saturday, 15 July 2023
Matter is not reducible to matter?
Can the Quantum Realm Explain Reality?
If we can uncover the smallest quantum particles in nature, will we have uncovered the fundamental secrets of reality? A longstanding philosophical tradition in the sciences claims “yes.” Uncovering the mystery of the world, we’re told, lies in the ability to interrogate the smallest of the small.
But Is That True?
What special status does the tiny have over the large? A paper at IAI News by London philosopher Peter West argues that reality can’t in fact be elucidated simply by observing quantum mechanics. He talks at some length about the 17th-century text Micrographia by Robert Hooke, which features various images of insects and other organisms under the microscope. West notes that Hooke set the stage, in part, for the impending empiricism of the Enlightenment, writing,
According to Hooke, microscopes, like telescopes, put us on the cusp of doing what philosophers from Antiquity onwards had always tried to do, namely, understand the fundamental nature of reality.
Hooke’s book brought about the formerly unconsidered notion of another world teeming everywhere around them. Not only were the heavens seemingly infinite, but the downward regions of the infinitesimal suddenly abounded with complexity and mystery. West believes the book sparked a “paradigm shift,” and furthermore, relates today’s interest in quantum mechanics to Hooke’s microscopic ventures. However, unlike the microscopic, the quantum realm continues to evade human observation. West continues,
The microscopic realm, once thought of as the bottom-most layer of reality, has been replaced by the quantum realm; and the quantum does not succumb to human observation. Indeed, the more of it we observe, the less we seem to understand it; for the quantum realm is, or seems to be, observer-dependent. And yet, the quest to identify a ‘base layer’ that the world around us is reducible to doesn’t seem to have been given up.
A Philosophical Commitment
West notes that many scientists and mathematicians, such as the late Stephen Hawking, remain committed to the idea that ultimate reality will eventually be explained via material causes and substances. However, the commitment is philosophical, not scientific, resting on prior assumptions and aims that color the scientific endeavor. West recommends giving up the hope of reducing all of reality to the physical, and instead to be open to many areas of inquiry, accepting that nature is “multifaceted and complex.” As mathematician David Berlinski writes in his new book, Science After Babel,
That quantum mechanics makes no sense is widely celebrated as one of its virtues. Not a day passes in which its weirdness is not extolled. As much might be said of the Eucharist, but with this considerable difference: scientific weirdness tends inexorably toward a kind of bleakness.
DAVID BERLINSKI, SCIENCE AFTER BABEL | EVOLUTION NEWS
Making himself equal to JEHOVAH?
John ch.5:18NASB"For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal(isa) with (the) God."
Strong's isos:isos: equal
Original Word: ἴσος, η, ον
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: isos
Phonetic Spelling: (ee'-sos)
Definition: equal
Usage: equal, equivalent, identical.
Those Trinitarians who are eager to make common cause with the slanderers of our Lord for the sake of advancing their extra biblical conclusions are not paying attention to implications of his accusers charges. Isos is never used in scripture to denote identity but equivalence. So if the religious leaders, who were the source of this accusation, were in the right it would necessarily imply that Jesus was not JEHOVAH or claiming to be JEHOVAH .Because that was not implication of the charge. The implication of the charge was that Jesus was claiming to be equivalent to the God(ho Theos) not merely the Father (ho Pater)
and not numerical identity to the God(not merely the Father) . Note Jesus' being numerically identical to the one God would also falsify the trinity because no member of the trinity is a God in his own right or that would result in polytheism and definitely not the only God as that would result in modalism.
So agreement with the false charges made at John ch.5:18 leads to the necessary implications that Jesus was neither the God nor claiming to be the God ,also the God that he was equal(isos) to is not the JEHOVAH of scripture.
Psalm ch.83:18KJV"That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth."
JEHOVAH Singlehandedly exhausts the category of Most high God he is without equal.
The same would go for another trinitarian favourite
Phillipians ch.2:6NASB"who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be [f]grasped, "
Again JEHOVAH has no equal So if Paul is saying that Jesus is (isos) equal to God as distinct to being numerically identical to God( BTW both claims would falsify the trinity). Necessarily Jesus would not be God and neither Jesus nor this God that he was (isos) equal to would be the JEHOVAH of scripture who is supreme.
Friday, 14 July 2023
On Origin of Life science's rose colored glasses
More Scientific Problems with Paul Rimmer’s Views on Origin of Life
In an article here yesterday, I analyzed astrochemist Paul Rimmer’s commentary on the debate between James Tour and Dave Farina. I focused on the specific research Rimmer cited and how his position as an origin of life (OOL) researcher likely shapes his evaluation of its relevance to explaining how a cell could have emerged through natural processes. Here, I will describe additional serious scientific problems with Rimmer’s optimistic assessment of the state of the field.
Proposed Path to Life
Rimmer presents the stages toward life’s genesis proposed by leading origins researcher John Sutherland (Figure 1). The postulated path to life entails a continuous series of stable systems gradually increasing in complexity until an autonomous cell emerges capable of Darwinian evolution. Since Sutherland assumes that life must have originated from undirected physical processes, he believes such stable intermediates must have existed.
Many have attempted to justify this assumption by appealing to such researchers as Jeremy England who have demonstrated that far-from-equilibrium systems can generate self-organizational behavior such as a hurricane’s funnel cloud. Theorists propose that analogous self-organizational processes could have driven a chemical system from one stable state to the next.
The Underlying Challenge
The problem with such claims is that naturally occurring self-organization is fundamentally different from the order in living systems, and all experiments that demonstrate self-organizational behavior that is even remotely life-like must apply artificial energy sources to systems designed to properly interact with the applied energy. For instance, Bachelard et al. (2017) applied acoustic waves of specific frequencies to meniscus particles in a waveguide to generate desired patterns in the acoustic bandgap (i.e., graph of transmitted frequencies). And Sacanna et al. (2014) applied light within carefully chosen frequency ranges to asymmetric semiconductor spheres in a solution of hydrogen peroxide fuel to generate self-propulsion and crystal formation. I describe other studies in my response to Jeremy England that employed comparable investigator ingenuity. In every example, the self-organizational behavior depends on the expertise of the researchers acting to achieve desired results.
In contrast, energy sources available on the early Earth properly interact with few, if any, biologically relevant chemical reactions or physical processes. Instead, raw energy tends to break apart complex molecules (e.g., proteins and RNA) and cellular structures. Any interactions that would have allowed a chemical system to move even a tiny step toward life would have been exceedingly rare.
The same holds true for even the earliest stages of origin scenarios. Tour has detailed how research that purportedly moves a chemical system toward life must start with carefully chosen molecules in concentrations and purities far higher that what could have occurred naturally. They must also employ highly orchestrated experimental procedures (here, here, here, here). Any chain of chemical events on the early Earth that achieved the same results would also have been exceptionally rare.
Alternative Perspective
These challenges convince scientists who do not assume that life originated through undirected natural processes that the journey toward the first cell should be depicted very differently from that of Sutherland. Consider this figure which realistically presents what is necessary for life to arise:
Figure 2 depicts four required processes for constructing a minimally complex cell:
The building blocks of life must be synthesized, including proteins, RNA, DNA, and cellular structures.
The building blocks must be transported to the same location. This step is far more difficult to explain through natural processes than most realize. The origin of the constituent molecules and linking them together require at least eight different environments.
The building blocks must be properly assembled into a functional cell. The number of configurations corresponding to life divided by the number of all possible configurations is an unimaginably small ratio.
Energy must be harnessed from the environment and converted into biologically useful forms, and that energy must be directed toward constructing a cell and then sustaining it. Continuous and reliable energy conversion and delivery can only be achieved with complex molecular machinery (here, here, here)
Figure 2 also depicts how every step toward life accomplished through a natural process corresponds to very “rare events.” In contrast, the natural processes continuously acting on an emerging protocell would have relentlessly driven it back toward biologically useless complex mixtures.
Even a 95 percent complete cell would irreversibly decompose into simpler molecules. Every chance step in the local environment toward cellular autonomy (e.g., two amino acids linking) would be matched by physical processes breaking apart the cell membrane, disassembling cellular machinery, and degrading proteins, RNA, and DNA. Every step forward would have been overshadowed by countless steps backward.
The Chicken or the Egg
Jeremy England elegantly describes the thermodynamic challenge for all life in his book Every Life Is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things when he states:
Like all living things, plants are structures that absorb energy from specific sources in ways that lead to internal motions that correct or undo each incremental bit of falling to pieces that happens at every moment. This process goes on not only when a wound heals, but also much more instantaneously every time sunlight is used to regenerate a molecule of chemical fuel that was just burned up, or every time a molecular chaperone burns up some chemical fuel in order to help a protein that has become misfolded to get back into the correct, functional shape. The fuel-consuming, heat-dissipating activities of proofreading, quality control, and self-maintenance lie at the core of what living things are doing all the time to remain alive, and every one of these activities involves some kind of cyclical motion, whereby work absorbed from the environment perpetually drags things back up the mountain as each little downward slip and slide occurs.
The dilemma for life’s origin is that the machineries for “proofreading, quality control, and self-maintenance” are required early along the journey to life, but they can only be built by cells that are already fully autonomous. In other words, life cannot form unless life already exists.
Final Analysis
As I said in my previous article, I applaud Paul Rimmer’s civility, thoughtfulness, and stature as a committed theist who works in the field of origin of life research. Many might be attracted to his approach, and rightly so. I hope for the opportunity to have a dialogue with him someday. But just as hoping and believing in something doesn’t therefore make it true, being civil and thoughtful does not change the state of the scientific evidence. We must face reality, and when we realistically consider the complexity of biological systems, the quest to explain life’s origin through natural chemical processes shows every sign of being an impossible scientific goal.
In fact, those not committed to the philosophy of scientific materialism often see attempts to explain life’s origin through natural processes as falling into the same category as alchemy or the quest for a perpetual motion machine. In addition, the minimal requirements for cells, such as information processing, energy production, and error correction, represent indisputable evidence for direct design. The denial of design is not driven by the empirical data or theoretical analyses but by philosophical commitments.
The fossil record continues to be fuel for doubt re:Darwin.
Fossil Friday: Cloudina Still Lacks the Guts to Be a Worm
In a previous article series at Evolution News I discussed and debunked various alleged Precambrian animals, including the tube-like cloudinomorphs (Bechly 2020), which had recently been claimed by Schiffbauer et al. (2020) to represent bilaterian worms because of a preserved longitudinal structure that was interpreted by these authors as a digestive tract. This should support the existence of a hypothetical late Ediacaran “worm world.” I criticized this interpretation and the taxonomic attribution and concluded that “cloudinomorphs remain what they were before the recent paper by Schiffbauer et al. (2020): a problematic group of shelly fossils, which were almost certainly not bilaterian worms, but quite possibly related to cnidarians.” My conclusion has since then been strongly corroborated by three new studies.
First Study
Park et al. (2021) identified “derived characters linking some members of an enigmatic animal group, the cloudinids, which first appeared in the Late Ediacaran, to animals with cnidarian affinity from the Cambrian Series 2 and the Miaolingian.” These authors also mentioned that the alleged cloudinomorpha with preserved gut lack the characteristic funnel-in-funnel structure of the tubes and thus may be unrelated to typical cloudinids. This would leave the theoretical possibility that those “cloudinomorphs” (e.g., Saarina and Costatubus) indeed were bilaterian worms with a convergent similarity to cloudinids. However, the authors “propose an alternative hypothesis for the phylogenetic affinity of the cloudinid-like tubular organisms,” because recent cnidarian polyps of coronate scyphozoan affinity produce tubes that are superficially similar and often conflated with polychaete tubes. They also possess a lengthy gastrovascular cavity that could be misinterpreted as an annelid-like gut in the fossils.
Second Study
My hypothesis (Bechly 2022) that all the tube-like Ediacaran fossils with a stacked composition of the sclerotized tubes do represent burrowing cnidarians, has been strongly supported by the discovery that similar phosphatized and annulated tube-like fossils from the Cambrian were not worms but indeed cnidarians (Zhang et al. 2022). The latter authors concluded that “early annulated tubular exoskeletons from the latest Ediacaran and Cambrian are better understood as variations on cnidarian exoskeletons rather than early annelids.”
Third Study
Finally, Dunn et al. (2022) described a supposed crown-group cnidarian from the Ediacaran of Charnwood Forest in the UK. They discussed the affinities of Cloudina and the interpretation of its body structures. Here is what they found:
The affinities of Cloudina and similar taxa are controversial, with some authors arguing for an annelid affinity while others compare them with non-bilaterians, chiefly cnidarians. Proponents of an annelid affinity for Cloudina have argued that the putative presence of direct development excludes a placement in Cnidaria; however, there are several Cambrian, skeletonizing fossil cnidarian taxa known to undergo direct development (see below). Furthermore, the annelids with which Cloudina has been closely compared (Serpulidae and Siboglinidae) both go through indirect development via a trochophore larva, a feature common to many marine annelids and their close relatives. The tube microstructures in Cloudina that are comparable with those of annelids have evolved many times (for example, in Alvinellidae and Siboglinidae), while the granular tube microstructure of Cloudina is found in living cnidarians but is absent in calcareous tube-forming annelids, along with polytomous branching, a lack of attachment structures and a closed tube base (except in individuals that have undergone damage). Further evidence for a total-group bilaterian affinity was provided by the discovery of fossilized soft tissues, interpreted as a through gut. The proposed gut morphology was used as evidence against a cnidarian affinity due to the absence of features characteristic of anthozoans, such as an actinopharynx, and longitudinal septa are also absent from the skeleton. However, these features are not present in medusozoan polyps with many medusozoans having a gut gross morphology that is broadly comparable with that observed in the soft tissues of cloudinomomorphs. Furthermore, there are a variety of annelid-mimicking bilaterian groups known from the Palaeozoic era, although these mostly first appear from the Ordovician period onwards. While recent discoveries have provided critical insights into the tube ultrastructure, growth and soft-tissue structures of cloudiniids, placing Cloudina in the total group of any animal phylum may be premature and we chose not to consider it in our phylogenetic analysis.
In sum: the evidence for an affinity of cloudinids with bilaterian worms does not stand up to scrutiny, while there is stronger new evidence for a cnidarian relationship. This adds to the growing evidence that the Cambrian bilaterian animal phyla were mostly or even totally absent in the Ediacaran and thus highlights the abruptness of the Cambrian Explosion as a discontinuous burst of biological novelty.
It is becoming a striking pattern that we intelligent design proponents make one successful prediction after another, while Darwinism’s track record of failed predictions grows ever longer. This should give our critics some reason to pause and think, but for mainstream science Darwinian evolution must be true by default and intelligent design is a priori ruled out as an acceptable option, irrespective of any conflicting evidence or predictive scores. Unfortunately, not everybody is prepared to follow the evidence wherever it leads.
References
Bechly G 2020. Did Cloudinids Have the Guts to Be Worms? Evolution News January 17, 2020. https://evolutionnews.org/2020/01/did-cloudinids-have-the-guts-to-be-worms/
Bechly G 2022. Let’s Help “Professor Dave” Understand the Precambrian. Evolution News December 2, 2022. https://evolutionnews.org/2022/12/lets-help-professor-dave-understand-the-precambrian/
Dunn FS, Kenchington CG, Parry LA, Clark JW, Kendall RS & Wilby PR 2022. A crown-group cnidarian from the Ediacaran of Charnwood Forest, UK. Nature Ecology & Evolution 6, 1095–1104. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01807-x
Park T-YS, Jung J, Lee M, Zhen YY, hua H, Warren LV & Hughes NC 2021. Enduring evolutionary embellishment of cloudinids in the Cambrian. Royal Society Open Science 8(12):210829, 1–12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.210829
Schiffbauer JD, Selly T, Jacquet SM, Merz RA, Nelson LL, Strange MA, Cai Y & Smith EF 2009. Discovery of bilaterian-type through-guts in cloudinomorphs from the terminal Ediacaran Period. Nature Communications 11:205, 1–12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13882-z
Zhang G, Parry LA, Vinther J & Ma X 2022. Exceptional soft tissue preservation reveals a cnidarian affinity for a Cambrian phosphatic tubicolous enigma. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289(1986): 20221623, 1–9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.
Thursday, 13 July 2023
James Tour vs. Dave Farina: the view from the centre
Origin of Life: Cambridge Astrochemist Paul Rimmer Analyzes the Tour-Farina Debate
Cambridge University astrochemist Paul Rimmer analyzed the debate between James Tour and Dave Farina on the Podcast Capturing Christianity. Rimmer has been recognized as a rising star in the study of the origin of life (OOL). In his charitable and thoughtful demeanor, he represents the antithesis of Farina. He also displays a commitment to describing the science with precision and nuance.
I have many positive thoughts about Rimmer, and I anticipate that many people who watch his post-debate analysis will rightfully come away with a positive view of him. However, the viewer should be aware of a critical caveat: Ultimately, Paul Rimmer is far too credulous about chemical explanations for the origin of life. His stance undoubtedly reflects his membership in the field of mainstream OOL research. To those outside that community, even the research Rimmer lauds as advancing the field only further confirms that life’s originating through natural processes is impossible on scientific grounds.
Analysis of the Debate
Rimmer begins with a helpful tutorial on research into life’s origin. He includes a diagram by John Sutherland on the presumed stages leading to the first self-replicating cell and the current state of the field. Rimmer summarizes the journey toward life as a continuous series of stable systems gradually increasing in complexity until one emerges capable of Darwinian evolution.
Rimmer then expands on specific topics raised by Tour and Farina. He elucidates the research cited by Farina in response to Tour’s question about how the amino acids Asp and Lys could have linked together on the early Earth. Rimmer acknowledges that the articles Farina cited do not directly address Tour’s questions, but he claims they still provide clues as to how amino acid chains could have emerged. He describes how Leman, Orgel, and Ghadiri (2004) linked the amino acids Ala, Phe, Leu, Ser, and Try together with the assistance of carbonyl sulfide. He then describes how Singh et al. (2022) linked aminonitriles (precursors to amino acids) to amino acids by employing catalysts such as thiols.
Rimmer continues by explaining the research referenced by Farina related to the origin of RNA. During the debate, Tour described how nucleotides often join a growing chain with 2’-5’ linkages instead of the standard 3’-5’ linkages — nucleotides connect at the wrong carbon on the ribose molecule. Farina responded to this hurdle by citing Engelhart et al. (2013) who validated that a nucleotide chain known as a hammerhead ribozyme (RNA enzyme) could still break apart an RNA molecule even if the ribozyme possessed some 2’-5’ linkages.
Rimmer states that RNA with the wrong linkages could not have been reliably copied, posing a major hurdle to further progress toward life. A single RNA molecule would almost always break apart before it could migrate to the right local environment where it could facilitate a life-relevant reaction. It would have to be copied numerous times before it could play any role in life’s origin.
Yet Rimmer argues that this challenge is not necessarily insurmountable since Mariani and Sutherland (2017)demonstrated a chemical pathway that replaces 2’-5’ linkages with the correct 3’-5’ linkages. Rimmer acknowledges that this study does not fully solve the problem of building RNA since the correction process is not highly efficient or reliable, but he claims such research provides a “clue” as to how RNA molecules could have emerged. There are additional problems with this research that I will describe below.
Differing Assumptions
The differing perspectives of Tour and Rimmer result from the differences in their starting assumptions. Rimmer’s scientific education trained him to only consider the possibility that life originated from natural processes. Rimmer tacitly acknowledges this fact in his response to a question about the appearance of design in life. He essentially argues that the origin of life requires “mind” only insofar as chemistry or biology or anything else that happens in nature requires mind. This is consistent with what he has written elsewhere predicting that we will one day find a “complete biological explanation … for the question of how life first originated on Earth.” He states that he does not wish to examine the evidence for design beyond the apparent design behind the laws of physics that allow for life to exist. Consequently, he is not concerned if experiments perfectly match what could have occurred on the early Earth or even if the chemistry is prebiotically plausible.He considers progress as simply finding clues as to what might have occurred.
In contrast, Tour considers progress in understanding life’s origin as demonstrating a chemical process that could have occurred naturally and could have produced molecules in sufficient abundance and purity to drive the next step toward life. Tour has convincingly argued that no such research exists (see for example here or here).
From Tour’s perspective, a careful analysis of the procedures used in the research Rimmer references (here and here, ) reveals that the studies only moved chemical systems toward life by starting with carefully chosen molecules in concentrations and purities that could never have arisen naturally. The experiments also employed meticulously designed experimental protocols with only marginal similarity to what could have transpired on the ancient Earth.
If the experiments used more realistic chemical mixtures and environmental conditions, they would not have produced anything biologically relevant. In addition, if the resulting products were deposited in any ancient environment, they would have simply degraded into biologically useless asphalts. Steven Benner describes this tendency as the Asphalt paradox. In other words, this research, while interesting, does not mimic a realistic natural environment, nor does it produce chemical mixtures that could eventually produce life.
Probability Paradox
The hammerhead ribozyme study cited by Farina and Rimmer poses an additional seemingly insurmountable hurdle to the RNA world hypothesis. Ribozymes with 2’-5’ bonds have primarily been shown to break apart RNA, leading to what Benner refers to as the Probability paradox , which he describes as follows:
Experiments show that RNA molecules that catalyze the destruction of RNA are more likely to arise in a pool of random (with respect to fitness) sequences than RNA molecules that catalyze the replication of RNA, with or without imperfections.
If a system of randomly sequenced RNA had emerged on the early Earth, biologically useful ribozymes would have quickly vanished as the system degraded into simpler molecules.
Future Presentations
As I noted, Paul Rimmer is thoughtful, civil, and his voice should be heard. He said nothing wrong in his presentation since he was asked to analyze the debate from the perspective of a scientist working in the field of OOL research. But those not working in the field can find many reasons why the research he cites is not persuasive that the chemical origin of life is possible. Perhaps in future discussions, Rimmer could explore how his philosophical framework shapes his interpretation of the results of OOL studies. Ideally, he would also explain why scientists not operating within the same framework assess the state of the field very differently.
As someone who has also engaged in thoughtful dialogue with OOL researchers, I would be very happy to be part of such a conversation. But I do not want to put Paul Rimmer’s career in any jeopardy: Those working in the field of OOL research would be ill-advised to publicly speak with too much candor about fundamental weaknesses in that field since doing so might jeopardize their career.
Nebuchadnezzar : the Watchtower Society's Commentary.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR
(Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar), Nebuchadrezzar (Neb·u·chad·rezʹzar) [from Akkadian, meaning “O Nebo, Protect the Heir!”].
Second ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire; son of Nabopolassar and father of Awil-Marduk (Evil-merodach), who succeeded him to the throne. Nebuchadnezzar ruled as king for 43 years (624-582 B.C.E.), this period including the “seven times” during which he ate vegetation like a bull. (Da 4:31-33) To distinguish this monarch from the Babylonian ruler by the same name but of a much earlier period (the Isin dynasty), historians refer to him as Nebuchadnezzar II.
Historical notices in cuneiform inscriptions presently available about Nebuchadnezzar somewhat supplement the Bible record. They state that it was in the 19th year of Nabopolassar’s reign that he assembled his army, as did his son Nebuchadnezzar, then crown prince. Both armies evidently functioned independently, and after Nabopolassar went back to Babylon within a month’s time, Nebuchadnezzar successfully warred in mountainous territory, later returning to Babylon with much spoil. During the 21st year of Nabopolassar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar marched with the Babylonian army to Carchemish, there to fight against the Egyptians. He led his forces to victory. This took place in the fourth year of Judean King Jehoiakim (625 B.C.E.).—Jer 46:2.
The inscriptions further show that news of his father’s death brought Nebuchadnezzar back to Babylon, and on the first of Elul (August-September), he ascended the throne. In this his accession year he returned to Hattu, and “in the month Shebat [January-February, 624 B.C.E.] he took the vast booty of Hattu to Babylon.” (Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, by A. K. Grayson, 1975, p. 100) In 624 B.C.E., in the first official year of his kingship, Nebuchadnezzar again led his forces through Hattu; he captured and sacked the Philistine city of Ashkelon. (See ASHKELON.) During his second, third, and fourth years as king he conducted additional campaigns in Hattu, and evidently in the fourth year he made Judean King Jehoiakim his vassal. (2Ki 24:1) Also, in the fourth year Nebuchadnezzar led his forces to Egypt, and in the ensuing conflict both sides sustained heavy losses.
Conquest of Jerusalem. Later, the rebellion of Judean King Jehoiakim against Nebuchadnezzar evidently resulted in a siege being laid against Jerusalem by the Babylonians. It appears that during this siege Jehoiakim died and his son Jehoiachin ascended the throne of Judah. But a mere three months and ten days thereafter the reign of the new king ended when Jehoiachin surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar (in the month of Adar [February-March] during Nebuchadnezzar’s seventh regnal year [ending in Nisan 617 B.C.E.], according to the Babylonian Chronicles). A cuneiform inscription (British Museum 21946) states: “The seventh year: In the month Kislev the king of Akkad mustered his army and marched to Hattu. He encamped against the city of Judah and on the second day of the month Adar he captured the city (and) seized (its) king [Jehoiachin]. A king of his own choice [Zedekiah] he appointed in the city (and) taking the vast tribute he brought it into Babylon.” (Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, by A. K. Grayson, 1975, p. 102; PICTURE, Vol. 2, p. 326) Along with Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar took other members of the royal household, court officials, craftsmen, and warriors into Babylonian exile. It was Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah that Nebuchadnezzar made king of Judah, and he changed Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah.—2Ki 24:11-17; 2Ch 36:5-10; see CHRONOLOGY; JEHOIACHIN; JEHOIAKIM.
Sometime later Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, allying himself with Egypt for military protection. (Eze 17:15; compare Jer 27:11-14.) This brought the Babylonians back to Jerusalem, and on Tebeth (December-January) 10 in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. (2Ki 24:20; 25:1; 2Ch 36:13) However, news that a military force of Pharaoh was coming out of Egypt caused the Babylonians to lift the siege temporarily. (Jer 37:5) Subsequently Pharaoh’s troops were forced to go back to Egypt, and the Babylonians resumed the siege against Jerusalem. (Jer 37:7-10) Finally, in 607 B.C.E., on Tammuz (June-July) 9 in the 11th year of Zedekiah’s reign (Nebuchadnezzar’s 19th year if counting from his accession year or his 18th regnal year), a breach was made in Jerusalem’s wall. Zedekiah and his men fled but were overtaken in the desert plains of Jericho. Since Nebuchadnezzar had retired to Riblah “in the land of Hamath,” Zedekiah was brought before him there. Nebuchadnezzar had all of Zedekiah’s sons slaughtered, and then he blinded and bound Zedekiah in order to take him as a prisoner to Babylon. The postconquest details, including the burning of the temple and the houses of Jerusalem, the disposition of temple utensils, and the taking of captives, were handled by Nebuzaradan the chief of the bodyguard. Over those not taken captive, Gedaliah, an appointee of Nebuchadnezzar, served as governor.—2Ki 25:1-22; 2Ch 36:17-20; Jer 52:1-27, 29.
His Dream of an Immense Image. The book of Daniel states that it was in “the second year” of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingship (probably counting from the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. and therefore actually referring to his 20th regnal year) that Nebuchadnezzar had the dream about the golden-headed image. (Da 2:1) Although the magic-practicing priests, conjurers, and Chaldeans were unable to interpret this dream, the Jewish prophet Daniel did so. This moved Nebuchadnezzar to acknowledge Daniel’s God as “a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a Revealer of secrets.” He then constituted Daniel “ruler over all the jurisdictional district of Babylon and the chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.” Nebuchadnezzar also appointed Daniel’s three companions, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to administrative posts.—Da 2.
Later Exiles of Jews. About three years later, in the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, more Jews were taken into exile. (Jer 52:30) This exile probably involved Jews who had fled to lands that were later conquered by the Babylonians. Lending support to this conclusion is the statement of the historian Josephus: “In the fifth year after the sacking of Jerusalem, which was the twenty-third year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar marched against Coele-Syria and, after occupying it, made war both on the Moabites and the Ammanites. Then, after making these nations subject to him, he invaded Egypt in order to subdue it, and, having killed the king who was then reigning and appointed another, he again took captive the Jews who were in the country and carried them to Babylon.”—Jewish Antiquities, X, 181, 182 (ix, 7).
Takes Tyre. It was also sometime after the fall of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. that Nebuchadnezzar began the siege against Tyre. During this siege the heads of his soldiers were “made bald” from the chafing of the helmets and their shoulders were “rubbed bare” from carrying materials used in the construction of siegeworks. As Nebuchadnezzar received no “wages” for serving as Jehovah’s instrument in executing judgment upon Tyre, He promised to give him the wealth of Egypt. (Eze 26:7-11; 29:17-20; see TYRE.) One fragmentary Babylonian text, dated to Nebuchadnezzar’s 37th year (588 B.C.E.), does, in fact, mention a campaign against Egypt. (Ancient Near Eastern Texts, edited by J. Pritchard, 1974, p. 308) But it cannot be established whether it relates to the original conquest or a later military action.
Building Projects. Besides attaining numerous military victories and expanding the Babylonian Empire in fulfillment of prophecy (compare Jer 47-49), Nebuchadnezzar engaged in considerable building activity. To satisfy the homesick longings of his Median queen, Nebuchadnezzar reportedly built the Hanging Gardens, rated as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Many of the extant cuneiform inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar tell of his building projects, including his erection of temples, palaces, and walls. An excerpt from one of these inscriptions reads:
“Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon, the restorer of Esagila and Ezida, son of Nabopolassar am I. As a protection to Esagila, that no powerful enemy and destroyer might take Babylon, that the line of battle might not approach Imgur-Bel, the wall of Babylon, that which no former king had done [I did]; at the enclosure of Babylon I made an enclosure of a strong wall on the east side. I dug a moat, I reached the level of the water. I then saw that the wall which my father had prepared was too small in its construction. I built with bitumen and brick a mighty wall which, like a mountain, could not be moved and connected it with the wall of my father; I laid its foundations on the breast of the under-world; its top I raised up like a mountain. Along this wall to strengthen it I constructed a third and as the base of a protecting wall I laid a foundation of bricks and built it on the breast of the under-world and laid its foundation. The fortifications of Esagila and Babylon I strengthened and established the name of my reign forever.”—Archaeology and the Bible, by G. Barton, 1949, pp. 478, 479.
The foregoing harmonizes with Nebuchadnezzar’s boast made just before he lost his sanity: “Is not this Babylon the Great, that I myself have built for the royal house with the strength of my might and for the dignity of my majesty?” (Da 4:30) But when, in fulfillment of his divinely sent dream about the chopped-down tree, his reasoning powers were restored, Nebuchadnezzar had to acknowledge that Jehovah is able to humiliate those walking in pride.—Da 4:37; see MADNESS.
Very Religious. The indications are that Nebuchadnezzar was extremely religious, building and beautifying the temples of numerous Babylonian deities. Particularly was he devoted to the worship of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon. To him Nebuchadnezzar gave credit for his military victories. Trophies of war, including the sacred vessels of Jehovah’s temple, appear to have been deposited in the temple of Marduk (Merodach). (Ezr 1:7; 5:14) Says an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar: “For thy glory, O exalted MERODACH a house have I made. . . . May it receive within itself the abundant tribute of the Kings of nations and of all peoples!”—Records of the Past: Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments, London, 1875, Vol. V, p. 135.
The image of gold set up by Nebuchadnezzar in the Plain of Dura was perhaps dedicated to Marduk and designed to promote religious unity in the empire. Enraged over the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to worship this image even after being given a second opportunity, Nebuchadnezzar commanded that they be thrown into a fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than usual. However, when these three Hebrews were delivered by Jehovah’s angel, Nebuchadnezzar was forced to say that “there does not exist another god that is able to deliver like this one.”—Da 3.
Nebuchadnezzar also appears to have relied heavily on divination in planning his military moves. Ezekiel’s prophecy, for example, depicts the king of Babylon as employing divination in deciding whether to go against Rabbah of Ammon or against Jerusalem.—Eze 21:18-23.
From following the science to leading the science?
Is There a Boom in Research Dishonesty?
What to make of this news stream?
Distinguished Professor Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School was recently accused by other academics of falsifying data in a number of studies, including one on dishonesty, where she was a co-author:
Professors Joseph Simmons, Uri Simonsohn and Leif Nelson of University of Pennsylvania, Escade Business School in Spain, and University of California, Berkeley, respectively, accused Gino of the fraud on their blog Data Colada.
“Specifically, we wrote a report about four studies for which we accumulated the strongest evidence of fraud,” they wrote, stating they shared their concerns with Harvard Business School.
THERESE JOFFRE, “HARVARD ETHICS PROFESSOR ALLEGEDLY FABRICATED MULTIPLE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE STUDIES” AT THE COLLEGE FIX, JUNE 28, 2023
Breaking Rules
Gino, currently on administrative leave, is also the author of Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life (2018). From the blurb: “Award-winning Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino shows us why the most successful among us break the rules, and how rebellion brings joy and meaning into our lives.” Here are the details at Data Colada.
Another of the authors of the dishonesty paper, the well-known Dan Ariely of Duke University, author of The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone — Especially Ourselves (Harper 2012), has also been accused by the other authors of Providing fraudulent data:
Behavioral scientists Leif Nelson and Joseph Simmons, who exposed the apparent fraud via their blog Data Colada together with their colleague Uri Simonsohn, say a thorough, transparent investigation is needed. But given other universities’ past reluctance to investigate their own researchers, they are skeptical that Duke will conduct one. That may leave Ariely’s supporters insisting he is innocent and detractors assuming he is guilty, Nelson says. “No one knows. And that’s terrible.”
CATHLEEN O’GRADY, “FRAUDULENT DATA RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT SUPERSTAR HONESTY RESEARCHER” AT SCIENCE (AUGUST 24, 2021)
Come to think of it, a similar situation arose over a decade ago. Harvard’s Marc Hauser, a principal investigator at the Cognitive Evolution Laboratory, was famous and popular for his research claims that “the foundations of language and morality are hardwired into the brains of humans and our kin.” But he found himself in hot water in 2010 because “lab workers observed huge discrepancies between his descriptions of monkey behavior and the experimental results captured on Video.”
On Aug. 10, the Boston Globe reported the psychology professor was taking a one-year leave of absence after a three-year internal investigation found evidence of scientific misconduct in his lab. Days later, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith confirmed that a committee found Hauser “solely responsible” for eight instances of misconduct — three of which were published studies that needed to be retracted or corrected to remove unsupported findings.
ERIC P. NEWCOMER AND ELYSSA A. L. SPITZER, “MARC HAUSER’S FALL FROM GRACE” AT THE HARVARD CRIMSON (SEPTEMBER 4, 2010)
Hauser resigned from Harvard in 2011 in the wake.
Dumped by Viking
As it happens, he was working on a book as the story broke: Evilicious. Apparently the book was originally to be published by Viking, with the subtitle Why We Evolved a Taste for Being Bad, but Viking dumped it, post-scandal, in 2012. Hauser later self-published it as Evilicious: Cruelty = Desire + Denial (CreateSpace, 2013). It was endorsed by (among others) some oft-quoted science celebs:
Dumbfounded Harvardites
Many Harvardites found the accusations against Hauser hard to believe:
As Hauser faces federal inquiry, many of his former co-authors, graduate students, and undergraduate advisees struggle to comprehend how the man they knew as a prolific researcher, skilled communicator, and heavyweight in the field of cognitive psychology became enmeshed in scandal.
ERIC P. NEWCOMER AND ELYSSA A. L. SPITZER, “MARC HAUSER’S FALL FROM GRACE” AT THE HARVARD CRIMSON (SEPTEMBER 4, 2010)
But perhaps Ariely and at least some of his colleagues would take a more ambivalent view than theirs, if we are to judge by the abstract of a recent paper:
People like to think of themselves as honest. However, dishonesty pays — and it often pays well. How do people resolve this tension? This research shows that people behave dishonestly enough to profit but honestly enough to delude themselves of their own integrity. A little bit of dishonesty gives a taste of profit without spoiling a positive self-view. Two mechanisms allow for such self-concept maintenance: inattention to moral standards and categorization malleability. Six experiments support the authors’ theory of self-concept maintenance and offer practical applications for curbing dishonesty in everyday life.
MAZAR, N., AMIR, O., & ARIELY, D. (2008). THE DISHONESTY OF HONEST PEOPLE: A THEORY OF SELF-CONCEPT MAINTENANCE. JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, 45(6), 633-644
Here’s a Thought
Could seeing morality in purely materialist or naturalist terms, as above, makes it all seem like a game? Then, when dishonesty (or whatever) blows a hole in the system, the researcher finds that colleagues, unlike those human- or monkey-study subjects, are very old-fashioned about cheating… A Bible Belt without the Bible could be a really scary place.
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