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Prelude
a b c d e f g
Contents
i ii iii iv
Dieu et mon droit
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 Tat Tvam Asi
7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
2 Mechanics of Evolution
9 40 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 50 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 60 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 70 1 2
3 Environment
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 80 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 90 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 100 1 2
4 Physiology of the Individual
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 110 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 120 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 130 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 140
5 Fabric of Society
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 150 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 160 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 170 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 180 1 2 3 4 5 6
6 The Shrine of Content
7 8 9 190 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 200 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 210 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 In His Own Image
7 8 9 220 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 230 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 240 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
8 In Search of Enlightenment
9 250 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 260 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 270 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 280 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 290 1 2
9 Mutation
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 300 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 310 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 320 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 330 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 340
10 Power of Prayer
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 350 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 360 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 370 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 380
11 Revelation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 390 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 400 1 2 3 4
Bibliograpy
5 6 7 8 9 410 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 420
Index
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 430 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 440 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 450 1 2 3 4 5 6

COMPUTER THEOLOGY

mechanisms. As the reader might infer from the title, we consider religion to be a significant recurring mechanism of evolution; certainly as it pertains to multi-level natural selection, a subject we’ll discuss in depth in Chapter 2.

The concept of evolution has been around for a long time. However, while some might suggest that cursory discussions of what today we think of as evolutionary mechanisms can be found among the writings of the ancient Greeks, for our purposes, we will view the seminal establishment of the principles of evolution to be the products of the XVIII^th and XIX^thCenturies in the form of pioneering research and writings by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel. While there were other players in the game, these particular innovators were instrumental in forming the context for thought and discussions about evolution in the form that we know it today. Darwin and Mendel were actually contemporaries, with Mendel very aware of Darwin’s works. As it happened, however, Mendel’s work was not well known outside his immediate vicinity. So, in all likelihood Darwin was never aware of his work. Lamarck predated them both by a few decades and both were well aware of the writings of Lamarck.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck first gave significant impetus to the concept that members of species inherited characteristics from their progenitors. He proposed a model for the evolutionary process. A summary of his basic views is found in his work Philosophie zoologique. There he offers the following assessment (our translation):

So, any change acquired in an organ through a habit of sufficient usage for having effected it, conserves itself through generation, if it is common to the individuals who, in fecundation, concur together to the reproduction of their species. Finally, this change propagates itself, and so passes into all succeeding individuals subject to the same circumstances, without them having to acquire it the way it was really created.

Thus, Lamarck formalized the idea that change that occurs within an organism can be propagated into succeeding generations. Such change, even if it occurs in minute steps, could have a cumulative effect over time. In his view, the impetus for change was an organism’s need to adapt to its specific environment. In other words, the environment was the agent that stimulated change within the organism. Charles Darwin modified the proposition as follows in The Origin of Species:

How much of the acclimatisation of species to any peculiar climate is due to mere habit, and how much to the natural selection of varieties having different innate constitutions, and how much to both means combined, is a very obscure question. That habit or custom has some influence I must believe, both from analogy, and from the incessant advice given in agricultural works, even in the ancient Encylopaedias of China, to be very cautious in transposing animals from one district to another; for it is not likely that man should have succeeded in selecting so many breeds and sub-breeds with constitutions specially fitted for their own districts: the result must, I think, be due to habit. On the other hand, I can see no reason to doubt that natural selection will continually tend to preserve those individuals which are born with constitutions best adapted to their native countries.

As we see, Charles Darwin, without obliterating Larmarck’s view, added natural selection, the proposition that within the evolutionary process the environment may judge the efficacy of change

1 Tat Tvam Asi

The contents of ComputerTheology: Intelligent Design of the World Wide Web are presented for the sole purpose of on-line reading to allow the reader to determine whether to purchase the book. Reproduction and other derivative works are expressly forbidden without the written consent of Midori Press. Legal deposit with the US Library of Congress 1-33735636, 2007.

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ComputerTheology
Intelligent Design of the World Wide Web
Bertrand du Castel and Timothy M. Jurgensen
Midori Press, Austin Texas
1st Edition 2008 (468 pp)
ISBN 0-9801821-1-5

Book available at Midori Press (regular)
Book available at Midori Press (signed)
Book available at Amazon (regular)