Alternative to Darwinism? NYTimes Article, Feb 20, 2005

[Guest guest]

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW

Unintelligent Design

By JIM HOLT

 

Published: February 20, 2005

 

ecently a school district in rural Pennsylvania officially recognized a

supposed alternative to Darwinism. In a one-minute statement read by an

administrator, ninth-grade biology students were told that evolution was not a

fact

and were encouraged to explore a different explanation of life called

intelligent design. What is intelligent design? Its proponents maintain that

living

creatures are just too intricate to have arisen by evolution. Throughout the

natural world, they say, there is evidence of deliberate design. Is it not

reasonable, then, to infer the existence of an intelligent designer? To evade

the

charge that intelligent design is a religious theory -- creationism dressed

up as science -- its advocates make no explicit claims about who or what this

designer might be. But students will presumably get the desired point. As one

Pennsylvania teacher observed: ''The first question they will ask is: 'Well,

who's the designer? Do you mean God?'''

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From a scientific perspective, one of the most frustrating things about

intelligent design is that (unlike Darwinism) it is virtually impossible to

test.

Old-fashioned biblical creationism at least risked making some hard factual

claims -- that the earth was created before the sun, for example. Intelligent

design, by contrast, leaves the purposes of the designer wholly mysterious.

Presumably any pattern of data in the natural world is consistent with

his/her/its existence.

But if we can't infer anything about the design from the designer, maybe we

can go the other way. What can we tell about the designer from the design?

While there is much that is marvelous in nature, there is also much that is

flawed, sloppy and downright bizarre. Some nonfunctional oddities, like the

peacock's tail or the human male's nipples, might be attributed to a sense of

whimsy on the part of the designer. Others just seem grossly inefficient. In

mammals, for instance, the recurrent laryngeal nerve does not go directly from

the cranium to the larynx, the way any competent engineer would have arranged

it. Instead, it extends down the neck to the chest, loops around a lung

ligament and then runs back up the neck to the larynx. In a giraffe, that means

a

20-foot length of nerve where 1 foot would have done. If this is evidence of

design, it would seem to be of the unintelligent variety.

Such disregard for economy can be found throughout the natural order. Perhaps

99 percent of the species that have existed have died out. Darwinism has no

problem with this, because random variation will inevitably produce both fit

and unfit individuals. But what sort of designer would have fashioned

creatures so out of sync with their environments that they were doomed to

extinction?

The gravest imperfections in nature, though, are moral ones. Consider how

humans and other animals are intermittently tortured by pain throughout their

lives, especially near the end. Our pain mechanism may have been designed to

serve as a warning signal to protect our bodies from damage, but in the

majority of diseases -- cancer, for instance, or coronary thrombosis -- the

signal

comes too late to do much good, and the horrible suffering that ensues is

completely useless.

And why should the human reproductive system be so shoddily designed? Fewer

than one-third of conceptions culminate in live births. The rest end

prematurely, either in early gestation or by miscarriage. Nature appears to be

an

avid abortionist, which ought to trouble Christians who believe in both

original

sin and the doctrine that a human being equipped with a soul comes into

existence at conception. Souls bearing the stain of original sin, we are told,

do

not merit salvation. That is why, according to traditional theology,

unbaptized babies have to languish in limbo for all eternity. Owing to faulty

reproductive design, it would seem that the population of limbo must be at least

twice that of heaven and hell combined.

Unintelligent Design

 

Published: February 20, 2005

 

(Page 2 of 2)

It is hard to avoid the inference that a designer responsible for such

imperfections must have been lacking some divine trait -- benevolence or

omnipotence or omniscience, or perhaps all three. But what if the designer did

not

style each species individually? What if he/she/it merely fashioned the primal

cell and then let evolution produce the rest, kinks and all? That is what the

biologist and intelligent-design proponent Michael J. Behe has suggested.

Behe says that the little protein machines in the cell are too sophisticated to

have arisen by mutation -- an opinion that his scientific peers overwhelmingly

do not share. Whether or not he is correct, his version of intelligent

design implies a curious sort of designer, one who seeded the earth with

elaborately contrived protein structures and then absconded, leaving the rest

to blind

chance.

 

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One beauty of Darwinism is the intellectual freedom it allows. As the

arch-evolutionist Richard Dawkins has observed, ''Darwin made it possible to be

an

intellectually fulfilled atheist.'' But Darwinism permits you to be an

intellectually fulfilled theist, too. That is why Pope John Paul II was

comfortable

declaring that evolution has been ''proven true'' and that ''truth cannot

contradict truth.'' If God created the universe wholesale rather than retail --

endowing it from the start with an evolutionary algorithm that progressively

teased complexity out of chaos -- then imperfections in nature would be a

necessary part of a beautiful process.

Of course proponents of intelligent design are careful not to use the G-word,

because, as they claim, theirs is not a religiously based theory. So biology

students can be forgiven for wondering whether the mysterious designer

they're told about might not be the biblical God after all, but rather some

very

advanced yet mischievous or blundering intelligence -- extraterrestrial

scientists, say. The important thing, as the Pennsylvania school administrator

reminded them, is ''to keep an open mind.''

Jim Holt is a frequent contributor to the magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta , freyjartist@a... wrote:

>

> THE WAY WE LIVE NOW

> Unintelligent Design

> By JIM HOLT

>

> Published: February 20, 2005

>

> ecently a school district in rural Pennsylvania officially

recognized a

> supposed alternative to Darwinism. In a one-minute statement read

by an

> administrator, ninth-grade biology students were told that evolution

was not a fact

> and were encouraged to explore a different explanation of life called

> intelligent design. What is intelligent design? Its proponents

maintain that living

> creatures are just too intricate to have arisen by evolution.

Throughout the

> natural world, they say, there is evidence of deliberate design. Is

it not

> reasonable, then, to infer the existence of an intelligent designer?

To evade the

> charge that intelligent design is a religious theory -- creationism

dressed

> up as science -- its advocates make no explicit claims about who or

what this

> designer might be. But students will presumably get the desired

point. As one

> Pennsylvania teacher observed: ''The first question they will ask

is: 'Well,

> who's the designer? Do you mean God?'''

> Advertisement

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>

> From a scientific perspective, one of the most frustrating things

about

> intelligent design is that (unlike Darwinism) it is virtually

impossible to test.

> Old-fashioned biblical creationism at least risked making some hard

factual

> claims -- that the earth was created before the sun, for example.

Intelligent

> design, by contrast, leaves the purposes of the designer wholly

mysterious.

> Presumably any pattern of data in the natural world is consistent with

> his/her/its existence.

> But if we can't infer anything about the design from the designer,

maybe we

> can go the other way. What can we tell about the designer from the

design?

> While there is much that is marvelous in nature, there is also much

that is

> flawed, sloppy and downright bizarre. Some nonfunctional oddities,

like the

> peacock's tail or the human male's nipples, might be attributed to

a sense of

> whimsy on the part of the designer. Others just seem grossly

inefficient. In

> mammals, for instance, the recurrent laryngeal nerve does not go

directly from

> the cranium to the larynx, the way any competent engineer would

have arranged

> it. Instead, it extends down the neck to the chest, loops around a

lung

> ligament and then runs back up the neck to the larynx. In a

giraffe, that means a

> 20-foot length of nerve where 1 foot would have done. If this is

evidence of

> design, it would seem to be of the unintelligent variety.

> Such disregard for economy can be found throughout the natural

order. Perhaps

> 99 percent of the species that have existed have died out.

Darwinism has no

> problem with this, because random variation will inevitably produce

both fit

> and unfit individuals. But what sort of designer would have fashioned

> creatures so out of sync with their environments that they were

doomed to

> extinction?

> The gravest imperfections in nature, though, are moral ones.

Consider how

> humans and other animals are intermittently tortured by pain

throughout their

> lives, especially near the end. Our pain mechanism may have been

designed to

> serve as a warning signal to protect our bodies from damage, but in the

> majority of diseases -- cancer, for instance, or coronary

thrombosis -- the signal

> comes too late to do much good, and the horrible suffering that

ensues is

> completely useless.

> And why should the human reproductive system be so shoddily

designed? Fewer

> than one-third of conceptions culminate in live births. The rest end

> prematurely, either in early gestation or by miscarriage. Nature

appears to be an

> avid abortionist, which ought to trouble Christians who believe in

both original

> sin and the doctrine that a human being equipped with a soul comes

into

> existence at conception. Souls bearing the stain of original sin, we

are told, do

> not merit salvation. That is why, according to traditional theology,

> unbaptized babies have to languish in limbo for all eternity. Owing

to faulty

> reproductive design, it would seem that the population of limbo must

be at least

> twice that of heaven and hell combined.

> Unintelligent Design

>

> Published: February 20, 2005

>

> (Page 2 of 2)

> It is hard to avoid the inference that a designer responsible for such

> imperfections must have been lacking some divine trait --

benevolence or

> omnipotence or omniscience, or perhaps all three. But what if the

designer did not

> style each species individually? What if he/she/it merely fashioned

the primal

> cell and then let evolution produce the rest, kinks and all? That is

what the

> biologist and intelligent-design proponent Michael J. Behe has

suggested.

> Behe says that the little protein machines in the cell are too

sophisticated to

> have arisen by mutation -- an opinion that his scientific peers

overwhelmingly

> do not share. Whether or not he is correct, his version of intelligent

> design implies a curious sort of designer, one who seeded the earth

with

> elaborately contrived protein structures and then absconded,

leaving the rest to blind

> chance.

>

> Advertisement

> Have our Top 20 Newsletter

> delivered to your Inbox each week! The Most " WOW! " Travel Deals

on the

> Internet - here's a sampling: Released

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> Nationwide (each way)_

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>

> One beauty of Darwinism is the intellectual freedom it allows. As the

> arch-evolutionist Richard Dawkins has observed, ''Darwin made it

possible to be an

> intellectually fulfilled atheist.'' But Darwinism permits you to be an

> intellectually fulfilled theist, too. That is why Pope John Paul II

was comfortable

> declaring that evolution has been ''proven true'' and that ''truth

cannot

> contradict truth.'' If God created the universe wholesale rather

than retail --

> endowing it from the start with an evolutionary algorithm that

progressively

> teased complexity out of chaos -- then imperfections in nature

would be a

> necessary part of a beautiful process.

> Of course proponents of intelligent design are careful not to use

the G-word,

> because, as they claim, theirs is not a religiously based theory.

So biology

> students can be forgiven for wondering whether the mysterious designer

> they're told about might not be the biblical God after all, but

rather some very

> advanced yet mischievous or blundering intelligence --

extraterrestrial

> scientists, say. The important thing, as the Pennsylvania school

administrator

> reminded them, is ''to keep an open mind.''

> Jim Holt is a frequent contributor to the magazine.

>

>

 

Cause-and-effect does not necessarily only go from " past " to " future " .

Complexity unfolding could be the result of infinite intelligence

pulling evolution towards it through a jungle of messy entropy - in a

way drawing out complexity out of chaos.

 

/AL