jar writes:
quote:
As a starting place, once a sufficient amount of hydrogen existed, do the basic laws of physics make it inevitable that some of the hydrogen would be drawn together until density reached a point where atoms would collide to make helium?
I'm probably raising my nonphysicist head high enough get it lopped off, but wouldn't that depend on what the hydrogen is doing? If the hydrogen is distributed perfectly evenly and is expansively accerlerating, why would the atoms collide? I seem to recall that current theories of cosmogyny include some element of uneven density to explain the clumpiness of the observed universe, whether that be echos of a Big Crunch, local inflation, etc.
Guess that may be a quibble (but an awfully big one in implication).. I would answer, yes: given a universe where hydrogen atoms collide, where there is sufficient mass to form stars, and sufficient time for the process to proceed, evolution would be inevitable. Complexity would necessarily emerge, and sentience with it.
As to the definition of design (I am resisting the impulse to grab Webster's), it seems to me that the common understanding of a design (as opposed to the process of design) is a plan, blueprint, or template: DNA and the resulting organism fit that understanding well.
So perhaps the question and/or the answer is to examine evolution as an emergent property that produces design.
Does the process of design require intelligence? Heck, no--committees produce designs with results that resemble many organisms
EDIT: Sorry, Parasomnium, if this seems OT--I hadn't read your rejoinder before I clicked it in...
This message has been edited by Omnivorous, 07-27-2005 09:10 AM