Guy Threepwood
Mighty Pirate
However, wouldn't many people - those who came before those lab experiments I cited in my previous post - have said that RNA was "irreducibly" complex as a standalone molecule? Basically stating that it would be impossible for such a long-strand molecule to have come about of its own accord? Very likely yes. The point being, you don't know whether something is "irreducibly complex" until you do. You can, of course, throw your hands up saying "Gah! I just can't understand how it could have come about without an intelligence behind it!", but that still doesn't mean you KNOW.
This overlooks something incredibly obvious, and something you have already called to in your own defense - irreducibility. At some level, NO MATTER WHAT COMPRISES REALITY, things simply are as they are, and have to be accepted as such. At some level there IS NO "WHY" to be answered in any meaningful sense. Because there is a reality to experience at all, it has to have some fundamental rules/bindings/workings. Why not those that we see in front of us? Especially considering that is all we can see?
Positing an intelligence behind it all only adds another layer on top of that... one that also has to have some BASIS to its reality... some level at which nothing can be further reduced - a level at which things simply are the way they are, with no need for further explanation... and no need for guessing at directorial intelligence.
I take your point and it sounds quite logical.
But...!
the exact same argument can be made for looking at the word "HELP' spelled with rocks on a deserted island beach, with no evidence of anyone ever being there, and concluding that the waves probably washed them up that way.
After all you are using the simple proven natural mechanism that you CAN see, rather than defer to an invisible complex intelligence that you cannot- adding another layer of mysterious complexity and asking more difficult questions.
And of course proposing QM behind classical physics, rather than sticking with simple superficial laws, opened a very tricky can of worms- but a very necessary one
The simplest explanation is no doubt always the most tempting, but reality has shown little regard for Occam's razor!