Charles Darwin and Intelligent Design

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Denis O. Lamoureux ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Intelligent Design ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Historical Literature ◽  
The World ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Design In Nature

Many assume that Charles Darwin rejected outright the notion of intelligent design. As a consequence, the term "Darwinism" has evolved to become conflated with a dysteleological interpretation of evolution. The primary historical literature reveals that Darwin's conceptualization of design was cast within the categories of William Paley's natural theology, featuring static and perfect adaptability. Once Darwin discovered the mechanism of natural selection and the dynamic process of biological evolution, he rejected the "old argument from design in Nature" proposed by Paley. However, he was never able to ignore the powerful experience of the creation's revelatory activity. Darwin's encounter with the beauty and complexity of the world affirms a Biblical understanding of intelligent design and argues for the reality of a non-verbal revelation through nature. In a postmodern culture with epistemological fourmulations adrift, natural revelation provides a mooring for human felicity.

scholarly journals Students’ “teleological misconceptions” in evolution education: why the underlying design stance, not teleology per se, is the problem

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kostas Kampourakis
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Intelligent Design ◽  
Evolution Education ◽  
Teleological Explanation ◽  
Inherent Feature ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Design In Nature ◽  
Design Stance

AbstractTeleology, explaining the existence of a feature on the basis of what it does, is usually considered as an obstacle or misconception in evolution education. Researchers often use the adjective “teleological” to refer to students’ misconceptions about purpose and design in nature. However, this can be misleading. In this essay, I explain that teleology is an inherent feature of explanations based on natural selection and that, therefore, teleological explanations are not inherently wrong. The problem we might rather address in evolution education is not teleology per se but the underlying “design stance”. With this I do not refer to creationism/intelligent design, and to the inference to a creator from the observation of the apparent design in nature (often described as the argument from design). Rather, the design stance refers to the intuitive perception of design in nature in the first place, which seems to be prevalent and independent from religiosity in young ages. What matters in evolution education is not whether an explanation is teleological but rather the underlying consequence etiology: whether a trait whose presence is explained in teleological terms exists because of its selection for its positive consequences for its bearers, or because it was intentionally designed, or simply needed, for this purpose. In the former case, the respective teleological explanation is scientifically legitimate, whereas in the latter case it is not. What then should be investigated in evolution education is not whether students provide teleological explanations, but which consequence etiologies these explanations rely upon. Addressing the design stance underlying students’ teleological explanations could be a main aim of evolution education.

Evolution and the argument from design

1978 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth V. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
The Law ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Design In Nature

The old argument from design in Nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, fails, now that the law of Natural Selection has been discovered. Charles Darwin

Evolutionary Writings

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Darwin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Intelligent Design ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Global Impact ◽  
The World ◽  
Correspondence Project ◽  
Darwin Correspondence Project ◽  
Descent Of Man ◽  
Controversial Nature ◽  
Beagle Voyage

‘Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.’ On topics ranging from intelligent design and climate change to the politics of gender and race, the evolutionary writings of Charles Darwin occupy a pivotal position in contemporary public debate. This volume brings together the key chapters of his most important and accessible books, including the Journal of Researches on the Beagle voyage (1845), the Origin of Species (1871), and the Descent of Man, along with the full text of his delightful autobiography. They are accompanied by generous selections of responses from Darwin’s nineteenth-century readers from across the world. More than anything, they give a keen sense of the controversial nature of Darwin’s ideas, and his position within Victorian debates about man’s place in nature. The wide-ranging introduction by James A. Secord, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, explores the global impact and origins of Darwin’s work and the reasons for its unparalleled significance today.

2. Evolution and natural selection

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Samir Okasha
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Modern Biology ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Philosophical Significance ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection

In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, in which he set out his theory of evolution. The book marked a turning point in our understanding of the natural world and revolutionized biology. ‘Evolution and natural selection’ outlines the theory of evolution by natural selection, explaining its unique status in biology and its philosophical significance. It considers how Darwin’s theory undermined the ‘argument from design’, a traditional philosophical argument for the existence of God; how the integration of Darwin’s theory with genetics, in the early 20th century, gave rise to neo-Darwinism; and why, despite evolutionary theory being a mainstay of modern biology, in society at large there is a marked reluctance to believe in evolution.

For God and Country

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Aminoff
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Intelligent Design ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Anatomical Teaching

Charles Bell and his wife both had ecclesiastical backgrounds. Like many contemporary scientists, Bell was a creationist who believed in intelligent design. He not only published notes and supplementary dissertations to William Paley’s Natural Theology but also wrote a treatise on Animal Mechanics and a Bridgewater Treatise on The Hand. Natural theology had begun to decline in importance in the 1830s, however, seeming increasingly tired and dated in an era of change. Bell’s anatomical teaching—framed on the concept of intelligent design—was thus overshadowed by the concepts of Buffon, Geoffroy, Lamarck, Robert Grant, and Charles Darwin and by the teachings of younger, more modern professors. Nevertheless, national honors came his way—the Gold (Royal) Medal of the Royal Society for his work on the nervous system and a knighthood in 1831.

On the Compatibility of Evolutionary Biology and Theism

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
John Lemos
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Creation Story ◽  
The Image Of God

Human beings are the products of many thousands of years of biological evolution, and this process occurs in accordance with the principles of natural selection originally articulated and defended by Charles Darwin and developed and defended further in the modern synthesis of the 20th century.  In this paper, I consider how it may be thought that this fact threatens the rationality of belief in the Christian God.  These threats are countenanced with respect to issues of design, randomness, suffering, and the objectivity of ethics.  I argue that while some versions of Christian belief, such as those grounded in a literalist reading of the Genesis creation story or those committed to the image of God thesis, may be threatened by a Darwinian worldview, there are nonetheless plausible versions of Christian belief that are immune to Darwinian challenges.

Biological adaptation: dependence or independence from environment?

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-102
Author(s):  
Jolanta Koszteyn ◽  
Piotr Lenartowicz
Keyword(s):  
Natural Theology ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Great Role ◽  
Biological Adaptation ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Design In Nature ◽  
Living Being ◽  
Special Creation

Since more than hundred years the attempts to explain biological adaptations constitute the main current of evolutionary thinking. In 1901 C. LI. Morgan wrote: „The doctrine of evolution has rendered the study of adaptation of scientific importance. Before that doctrine was formulated, natural adaptations formed part of the mystery of special creation, and played a great role in natural theology through the use of the argument from 'design in nature’". The modem doctrine of biology stresses the importance of the environment in „shaping" the inner properties of every living being. This means an obvious although tacit refusal to assume or recognize any single, integrated agent in the origin of main functional biological traits and in the genesis of new kinds of life. The role ascribed to random mutations, and to „pressures of the environment" is just one aspect of the neodarwinian theory. Another aspect of this doctrine is the widespread conviction that all phenomena of life are a natural, both random and necessary result of interactions between constantly changing material objects.

scholarly journals A crítica de Hume ao argumento do desígnio

DoisPontos ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Oscar De Almeida Marques
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Design ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The World ◽  
Argument From Design

É comum considerar que o chamado “argumento do desígnio” (o argumento a posteriori para provar a existência de Deus a partir da ordem e funcionalidade do mundo) teria sido refutado ou seriamente abalado por Hume. Mas a natureza e o alcance dessa alegada refutação são problemáticos, pois Hume muitas vezes expressou suas críticas por meio de seus personagens e evitou assumi-las diretamente enquanto autor. Em vez de supor que Hume procedeu dessa forma apenas para disfarçar suas verdadeiras convicções e evitar um conflito com as autoridades eclesiásticas, proponho que sua posição nesse assunto não é tão categórica como às vezes se supõe, e que os famosos argumentos de Filo nos Diálogos mostram apenas que é possível que a ordem e funcionalidade do mundo tenham surgido sem a intervenção de um desígnio consciente, mas não podem por si sós dar a essa hipótese o mínimo grau de plausibilidade necessário para torná-la digna de uma séria consideração. De fato, antes da revolução explicativa operada por Darwin um século depois, ninguém estava realmente em condições de vislumbrar uma alternativa plausível à atuação de algum tipo de inteligência na geração da ordem e funcionalidade do mundo. Hume’s Critique of the Argument from Design Abstract The so-called “argument from design” (the a posteriori argument to prove the existence of God from the order and functionality of the world) is commonly considered to have been refuted or seriously impaired by Hume. But the nature and scope of this alleged refutation is problematic because Hume often expressed his criticisms through other characters’ mouth and avoided to assume them directly as author. Contrarily to the supposition that Hume proceeded in this way only to disguise his true convictions and to avoid a confrontation with ecclesiastical authorities, I propose that his stance on the matter is not, in fact, as clear-cut as it is sometimes supposed, and that Philo’s famous arguments in the Dialogues show only that it is possible for the order and functionality of the world to have arisen without the intervention of an intelligent design, but cannot by themselves lend to this hypothesis the least degree of plausibility needed to make it worthy of serious consideration. In fact, before the explanatory revolution inaugurated by Darwin a century later, nobody was in position to envisage a plausible alternative to the operation of some sort or other of intelligence in the generation of the order and functionality of the world.

scholarly journals Christianity and Darwinism: The Journey Is More Important Than the Destination

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 124
Author(s):  
Michael Ruse
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Theory Of Evolution

Does God exist? If he does, what is the evidence for this? Can one arrive at God through reason (natural theology), or is it faith or nothing (revealed theology)? I write of my lifetime of wrestling with this question. Raised a Quaker, I lost my faith at the age of 20. As an academic, I became an expert on Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution through natural selection. How can I make sense of—and how can I reconcile—these two hugely important things in my life? At the age of 80, I find myself a long-standing agnostic. This is not, as Francis Collins claims, a “cop out.” Showing my debt to my Quaker heritage, I am theologically apophatic. I can say only what I do not know. I find this quite-out-of-character modesty hugely exciting. It gives my life great meaning.

Nature, History and the Search for Order: The Boyle Lectures, 1730–1785

2010 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 276-292
Author(s):  
Robert G. Ingram
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Natural Theology ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Historical Turn ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Design In Nature

History supplanted nature as the most important apologetical language among English polemical divines during the mid-eighteenth century, but not for the reasons usually adduced. The triumph of history over nature owed everything to the power of orthodox patronage and to nature’s demonstrable apologetical efficacy, and nothing to natural theology’s supposed failure sufficiently to prove God’s existence. Put another way, by the late 1720s orthodox apologists had come to believe that the popular argument from design in nature applied equally to history. Moreover, the argument from design in history appears to have been an apologetical strategy which accorded more closely with the disposition of an increasingly orthodox episcopate during the mid-century period. Little evidences the mid-century historical turn — a shift either missed or ignored by most historians — more clearly than the second generation (1730–1785) of the Boyle lectures, a series of public sermons founded by Robert Boyle in order to defend Christianity from the attacks of unbelievers. For whereas the first generation of lecturers founded their defences of Christianity on natural theology, the second built on Christianity’s historical record.

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