Claim CI010:
Information cannot be created by either natural processes or chance, so
there is a law of conservation of information.
Source:
Dembski, William A., 1999. Intelligent Design: The bridge between
science and theology. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.
Response:
- Dembski defines his information as Shannon uncertainty, which is
equivalent to entropy. We know that entropy can and does increase.
Dembski's law of conservation of information is simply wrong.
- No recognized theory of information (i.e., the statistical theory of
Shannon et al, and the algorithmic theory of Kolmogorov, Chaitin, and
Solomonoff) has a law of conservation of information. William Dembski
and Werner Gitt have each invented their own nonstandard information
theories, but neither of these theories is used in science or
engineering, and their claims are not supported by the vast body of
research into information theory.
- Even if there were a law of conservation of information, it would not
necessarily invalidate evolution. Information is transferred from the
environment to organisms by natural selection and other processes.
- Normally, physical laws get to be considered laws after they are tested
and verified by independent sources under very many various
conditions. For Dembski to claim a new physical law without any
testing whatsoever is hubris of the highest magnitude.
Links:
Elsberry, Wesley, and Jeffrey Shallit, 2003. Information theory,
evolutionary computation, and Dembski's "complex specified information".
http://www.talkreason.org/articles/eandsdembski.pdf
Stenger, Victor J., 2000 (Dec.). The emperor's new designer clothes.
Skeptical Briefs, http://www.csicop.org/sb/2000-12/reality-check.html
created 2003-6-4, modified 2003-11-8
