Evolutionary Creationism

There are a growing number of theists that believe that God and evolution are compatible. Even I considered that the possibility was plausible for quite some time. However I now believe that they are completely incompatible. I shall attempt to explain my views by criticizing the one thing that makes us so special : the Brain.

Granted, we have very useful and comparatively rare features like opposable thumbs and bipedal movement, but our brain really tops the list. Let me start by saying one thing: the brain is not all its cracked up to be. Bold words maybe, but I feel that too many people treat the brain as this omnipotent source of power. Don’t get me wrong, the brain is a magnificent and powerful organ, but we should not kid ourselves.

For the purpose of my argument, I would like to compare our brain with a computer. Its not a new comparison I know, but I think I can get a little bit more out of it. First of all, the processor. I explained a little before in Virtualization about Daniel Dennett’s and Richard Dawkins’ view on the brain. They believed that the brain is fundamentally a parallel processor, which is how our body can effectively control the millions of processes that go on in our body, on top of which a virtual serial processor is built. A parallel processor is a type of processor that is divided into many processors. In terms of computer problems, a parallel processor can enable a problem to be divided into sub-problems, send them to multiple different processors and then these processors send the results back to the main processor. A serial processor can only handle one process or problem at a time. The way a serial processor handles many processes at the same time is by continuously switching between processes so fast that it appears to be running them in parallel.

This is astoundingly similar to how our own thought process works. You cannot think of two things at the time. Try for yourself if you want, but you will find yourself switching between one thought and the other. You may argue that if that were so, we would not be able to multitask. The truth is, you can’t, not in the way a parallel processor does anyway. Think about talking on the phone and driving. Your attention will flit between both continuously. If we really were able to multitask in a parallel manner, I suppose that things like car accidents would be very rare. But we cannot, and with every task we add, we halve our efficiency.

The next part of the computer is the memory.

A computer uses definite data structures to represent memory. This is to improve information retrieval times. The brain definitely uses a definite structure (although far more complex) as well. First of all, your memory is not perfect. You do forget things (sometimes completely). Some things, usually more recent things, come to you faster than older things. We do not remember every single sentence the English language has, instead we remember certain rules. Also, the addition of certain clues or hints, can jog your memory.

As you might have guessed, these are same limitations and features of modern day memory we find in computers. While, computers don’t forget things, they have a definite limit, exceeding which they must delete excess information. Recent events and processes are usually handled in the RAM where they can be stored for fast access. Older things stay in secondary memory like a hard drive, which is much slower. The rules that we remember to use English, are similar to compression of information in a computer, which also uses a rule to encode data.  For retrieval of information, lets use Google as an example. The more keywords you put, the closer you get to what you were looking for. The brain’s memory does this as well. Except the brain has the ability to associate not just text with a memory, but sounds, images, even video.

A quick side note about video that the brain handles. We don’t remember memories frame by frame. Instead, we remember the conditions, the people etc, and rebuild it again with our imagination. I think this can be compared to the difference between pre-rendered cut scenes and in-game engine cut scenes we see in current video games. Our brain is more like an infinitely powerful graphics engine that can virtualize events depending on how many conditions you remember.

Now you might be thinking,” Well that’s well and good, he’s given some argument on how we’re similar to computers, but what does that have to do with evolution?”.

The thing is, evolution of species and evolution of computers happened in very similar ways. Both grew from binary logic. Species have the strict logic of either two things: survive or die. It either works or it doesn’t. But they have had one big difference.

I haven’t read The Blind Watchmaker yet, but I guess the analogy that Dawkins is trying to convey in the book is that the evolutionary process is blind. That is, a blind watchmaker can only know if his watch is working in the end (perhaps by the sound of the watch ticking or something). Since he is blind, he must try every permutation and combination of the available resources he has and check. Obviously, this will take a very long time. However, eventually, he will get it right (assuming this watchmaker has got a lot of time on his hands).

The first electronic computer (ENIAC) was built in 1945. Its 2009 now and we can see the level of advancement in electronics. I have no doubt that we will be able to simulate the human mind completely by the end of the century. This is because we have guided the evolution of the computer. We have not made every permutation and combination of electronic components, because we have the ability to simulate and make sure that we can make a working computer on our first chance.

This is where Evolutionary Creationism doesn’t make sense.  If our evolution was guided by God who definitely would have had the ability to simulate situations as well, humans would have been created in less then a millennium. This has to be wrong, because if you believe in evolution, you also have to believe that it has been going on for a very, very long time, simply from fossil evidence and such. Well, if you don’t believe in such evidence, then there’s not much argument, but as for me, it does not make sense that God had anything to do with evolution.