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Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Bayes' Theorem and the Telic Universe

Bayes' theorem is all the rage among philosophers of a certain analytic stripe nowadays and Joe Carter employs it to come up with a clever argument that a telic universe and biosphere is much more probable than one that emerged through blind, non-telic, processes.

The idea behind Bayes' theorem is that it is possible to calculate the probability of something occuring or existing given the hypothetical existence of certain other conditions. In the case of Carter's argument he seeks to employ the Bayesian formula to calculate the probability that the universe would be structured the way it is given the non-existence of an intelligent architect and compare that probability to the liklihood that the universe would be structured as it is given that such a designer does exist.

Give it a look. It's interesting.