Derb makes interesting points as usual, but also engages in a little magical arguing here. Quite frankly, I find wave-particle duality as “magical” as the idea of the Immaculate Conception (especially given research a few years back that suggested it would be possible to cause ovum to fertilize without spermatozoa, not to mention some of the other oddities of the animal kingdom). Rare, well yes, but Derb is smart enough to know that miracles aren’t “magic,” they are the supreme being applying themselves in the physical realm. If there is a metaphysical God (and I’m a believer in the Christian one) then the idea of an Immaculate Conception or a host of other miracles is not nutty at all. In fact, the hangup the irreligious have is not with virgin births and miraculous foodstuffs, but with the idea of forces and energies that go beyond human ken to measure and analyze. It’s the idea of a God and power that is capable of ursurping the physical status quo that the irreligious have a problem with it. However, test-tube babies and genetic foodstuffs demonstrate that that status quo is more complex than the irreligious have to be willing to admit to focus on such details. The simple thing is that Derb is struggling to get out of his world-view as much as he claims Spencer is.
The interesting thing is that this was sort of the same problem religious people had with science back in the day…that the concepts introduced (or reintroduced in this case) don’t fit their basic perceptions of how things appear to be.
