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By way of introduction, we shall consider a few systems and repeatedly ask the question: What is the reason that such a system can function? Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
By way of introduction, we shall consider a few systems and repeatedly ask the question: What is the reason that such a system can function? Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is splendid read with excellent conclusions drawn and clearly explained. If you believed the theory of 'evolution' before this will help you to see the big loop-holes in that theory... and see through them to a greater reality. Be prepared to have to keep reading. It is hard to put down.
16 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Dr Werner Gitt the prominent information scientist offers an alternative and actually more obvious answer to the question of origins . Using his vast knowledge on the subject , he explains that evolution has no satisfactory explanation for the origin of information in DNA and argues a convincing case for a creator . A must read for anyone interested in science and with an open mind .
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14 reviews
51 of 68 people found the following review helpful
The edifice of science based on methodological naturalism shaken to the core
11 Dec 2006
Format:Paperback
The German professor Werner Gitt, in his landmark book In The Beginning Was Information provides a rigorously formal presentation and his book is well worth reading.
Gitt's argument is summarized in the following 8 theorems:
(1) No information can exist without a code.
(2) No code can exist without a free and deliberate convention.
(3) No information can exist without the five hierarchical levels: statistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and apobetics [note: apobetics is Gitt's term, referring to the fact that there can be shown to be
a will and a larger objective behind all instances of intent].
(4) No information can exist in purely statistical processes.
(5) No information can exist without a transmitter.
(6) No information chain can exist without a mental origin.
(7) No information can exist without an initial mental source; that is, information is, by its nature, a mental and not a material quantity.
(8) No information can exist without a will.
These theorems are similar to the laws of gravity and the laws of thermodynamics, in that no counterexample has ever been found. Gitt has presented this proof to university audiences of many thousands of people across Europe, and no one has ever been able to point out an exception. Numerous rebuttals to Gitt's theorems have been made, but in each instance, every one ignores or dismisses semantics and intent, properties that are essential to all forms of communication.
Unless / until a contradictory example can be found, these theorems are taken to be universally true.
For any reviewer to question Dr. Prof. Gitt's knowledge of the topic, only shows ignorance on his/her part
Gitt's argument is summarized in the following 8 theorems:
(1) No information can exist without a code.
(2) No code can exist without a free and deliberate convention.
(3) No information can exist without the five hierarchical levels: statistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and apobetics [note: apobetics is Gitt's term, referring to the fact that there can be shown to be
a will and a larger objective behind all instances of intent].
(4) No information can exist in purely statistical processes.
(5) No information can exist without a transmitter.
(6) No information chain can exist without a mental origin.
(7) No information can exist without an initial mental source; that is, information is, by its nature, a mental and not a material quantity.
(8) No information can exist without a will.
These theorems are similar to the laws of gravity and the laws of thermodynamics, in that no counterexample has ever been found. Gitt has presented this proof to university audiences of many thousands of people across Europe, and no one has ever been able to point out an exception. Numerous rebuttals to Gitt's theorems have been made, but in each instance, every one ignores or dismisses semantics and intent, properties that are essential to all forms of communication.
Unless / until a contradictory example can be found, these theorems are taken to be universally true.
For any reviewer to question Dr. Prof. Gitt's knowledge of the topic, only shows ignorance on his/her part
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Information and Its Bearing on Evolution
25 Dec 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Werner Gitt is a creationist who happens to be an accomplished scientist and knowledgeable about information and its theory. The discovery of information in the DNA and its complexity has cast very grave doubts on the viability of random chance and natural selection as an explanation for how we got here from nothing. He very meticulously discusses in theorem format the basics of information and how they apply to the discussion at hand. The discussion involves a lot of mathematics which is fairly straightforward to those with mathematical training. If you aren't, you can skim over the math since it is directed to a more technical audience and is the "proof" and demonstration of the points he is making. At the end of the discussion, he has shown that there is no chance that the information could have evolved using Darwinian paradigm. This is not particularly surprising since I have read several books that do the same thing in less depth. The difference with this book is that I learned a lot about information theory and how it works. He has three appendices that I found pretty tedious because I wasn't interested in that depth. He has a couple of chapters on the Bible that many may not be of particular interested.
I recommend this book not primarily for his demonstration of the very great unlikelihood that information could be accommodated using the Darwinian paradigm but because you can learn a lot about information/communication theory if you aren't conversant with it like I wasn't. You can reach your own conclusions then. If you are conversant with information theory, it may be worthwhile because you could give it a much more insightful and incisive review than I can. Either way, Darwinist or not, there is profit in this book.
I recommend this book not primarily for his demonstration of the very great unlikelihood that information could be accommodated using the Darwinian paradigm but because you can learn a lot about information/communication theory if you aren't conversant with it like I wasn't. You can reach your own conclusions then. If you are conversant with information theory, it may be worthwhile because you could give it a much more insightful and incisive review than I can. Either way, Darwinist or not, there is profit in this book.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
The astonishing problem with information
21 Mar 2009
Format:Paperback
The author is a professor for informatics. He found a new scientific law that will be hardly disproved. He explains in this book the information theory which, in case it is true, must have far reaching effects on other fields of science as well, for example Biology, because for Gitt the genetic Code in life forms is nothing else than non-material information which as DNA carries like newspaper a message.
The peculiarity is now that information is per se nothing material and can never be. Thus the question arises whence the information of the DNA came from when it has a non-material origin. The author answers this question very thoroughly. His argumentation is easily understood.
He starts to explain what matters most with nature laws as necessary conclusions from observation of nature. Laws can only be formulated when parameters are found with which it is possible to describe the nature. It must be possible to make predictions which can be falsified. When the statement is wrong, it should be possible to disprove it by suitable research.
Next the author describes the essence of information. He shows that in every kind of construction and production according to the intention a planning must be performed which then comes to an operation manual how the project should be executed in the end. For this a language or code is used. Everywhere in nature we come across information in codes. Information is beside energy and matter a basic factor in the world, but a non material one!
This is the big difference. The author formulates a nomological information theory. The most important statement is that the information process is a spiritual forethought process that can only in transportation be material that it can be read in this material world. Every word that is spoken or written, because it is heard and read, that is "seen", shows this principle. Software is on physical data medium without being itself material, because the program is not material.
The author is not silent that this further reflected must create doubts about the conventional materialistic theories of world- and life evolution.
From the scientific point of view all the scientific materialism, evolution theory and even atheism are not savable, since information can always be traced back to a person, that is a thinking being. Hence only the conclusion remains that the life forms are planned phenomenons and that there must be a planner.
In the last part of the book the author applies the information theory also on the Bible. The Bible also is nothing different than a process manual of an intelligent information source.
Very readable book that can widen your scientific horizon.
The peculiarity is now that information is per se nothing material and can never be. Thus the question arises whence the information of the DNA came from when it has a non-material origin. The author answers this question very thoroughly. His argumentation is easily understood.
He starts to explain what matters most with nature laws as necessary conclusions from observation of nature. Laws can only be formulated when parameters are found with which it is possible to describe the nature. It must be possible to make predictions which can be falsified. When the statement is wrong, it should be possible to disprove it by suitable research.
Next the author describes the essence of information. He shows that in every kind of construction and production according to the intention a planning must be performed which then comes to an operation manual how the project should be executed in the end. For this a language or code is used. Everywhere in nature we come across information in codes. Information is beside energy and matter a basic factor in the world, but a non material one!
This is the big difference. The author formulates a nomological information theory. The most important statement is that the information process is a spiritual forethought process that can only in transportation be material that it can be read in this material world. Every word that is spoken or written, because it is heard and read, that is "seen", shows this principle. Software is on physical data medium without being itself material, because the program is not material.
The author is not silent that this further reflected must create doubts about the conventional materialistic theories of world- and life evolution.
From the scientific point of view all the scientific materialism, evolution theory and even atheism are not savable, since information can always be traced back to a person, that is a thinking being. Hence only the conclusion remains that the life forms are planned phenomenons and that there must be a planner.
In the last part of the book the author applies the information theory also on the Bible. The Bible also is nothing different than a process manual of an intelligent information source.
Very readable book that can widen your scientific horizon.
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