Schrodinger’s Paradox, Intelligent Design and the Origin of Life

This month’s talk, by Claudio Elgueta of Abingdon U3A, is based on a famous lecture from 1943, given by the great Erwin Schrodinger in Dublin, where he’d fled from Nazi Germany. Entitled ‘What is Life?’, Schrodinger approached this profound question from a physicist’s standpoint, beginning with the paradox arising from the Second Law of Thermodynamics, specifically, how is it that life creates order in the world, when disorder – or entropy, as it’s known – should (if the Law is correct) be the result of every physical interaction in nature? After addressing this paradox, Claudio will then review the various science-based theories of the origins of life, and also the pseudo-scientific ‘theory’ of Intelligent Design, a creationist belief founded on the flawed concept of ‘irreducible complexity’, famously destroyed in a Pennsylvania court-room in 2005. Rather, as Claudio will explain, it is Richard Dawkins’ concept of ‘Climbing Mount Improbable’ which – although we can’t yet be sure of all the details – provides the most robust, evidence-based theory of how complex life evolved naturally from simple molecules.

To view the recording, click here…‘Schrodingers Paradox & the Origin of Life’

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