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The Relationship Between Darwinism and the Biological Design

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The Relationship Between Darwinism and the Biological Design Article The Historical Relationship Between Darwinism and the Biological Design Argument The Historical Relationship Between Darwinism and the Biological Design Argument It is often held that the argument from biological design (ABD) was valid and almost universally accepted before Darwin, that it was the most important rational ground for theism, and that it was invalidated by Darwinism. However, this is wrong. The history of the ABD ran parallel with those of evolutionary theories, with Lamarck having published in 1801 and Paley in 1802. Evolutionary theories and the ABD were alternative responses to empirical evidence that (1) spontaneous generation does not occur, and (2) new species have arisen in geological history. The main reason why evolution was seldom hypothesized before 1796 was probably that materialism was tenable otherwise. any parts of the world have wit- version of the ancient Argument from Mnessed a decline in theistic belief Design … we cannot fail to be struck Many parts since the nineteenth century. Often by the obvious resemblance of living this is thought to be associated with science. organs to the carefully planned designs of the world In particular, an influential school of of human engineers … These beautiful, thought holds that Darwinism has under- complex, intricate, and obviously pur- have witnessed mined theism by invalidating the argument pose-built structures must have had from biological design (ABD), which is the their own designer, their own watch- 3 a decline in argument that organisms are so complex maker—God. (that is, they have “some quality, specifiable The “Argument from [biological] theistic belief in advance, that is highly unlikely to have Design” [is] always the most influen- been acquired by random chance alone”1) tial of the arguments for the existence 4 since the that they must have been designed by a con- of a God. scious agent, who must be God. There are 3. The ABD was valid before Darwin. nineteenth other forms of the argument from design, Throughout most of history, it [the applying to the cosmos, for example, but this ABD] must have seemed utterly con- century. article is concerned solely with the ABD. vincing, self-evidently true.5 I term the belief that Darwinism has 4. The ABD was invalidated by Darwin. Often this is undermined theism the “Dawkins Model” And yet, as the result of one of the most after its most influential current advocate, astonishing intellectual revolutions in thought to be the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. history,wenowknowthatit[theABD] The main tenets of this model are: is wrong, or at least superfluous. We associated with 1. Theism and the ABD were almost univer- now know that the order and apparent purposefulness of the living world has sally accepted before Darwin. science. come about through an entirely different Almost everybody throughout history, process, a process that works without up to the second half of the nineteenth century, has firmly believed in ... the Richard Thornhill obtained a Ph.D. in biotechnology from Imperial College Conscious Designer theory.2 (London University) in 1994. He has published a number of papers on bacterial phylogenetics and evolutionary theory, although he is personally skeptical about 2. Theism was and is accepted primarily Darwinism. He now works as a scientific translator, as well as carrying out because of the ABD (unless for entirely private research into the philosophical and intellectual-historical implications nonrational reasons). of evolution. He is married with two children and lives in Japan. 4-411 Green Why do people believe in God? For Plaza Hibarigaoka-Minami, 1-22 Yato-cho, Nishi-Tokyo-shi, Tokyo 188-0001, most people the answer is still some Japan, email: [email protected] Volume 54, Number 4, December 2002 249 Article The Historical Relationship Between Darwinism and the Biological Design Argument the need for any designer and one that everyone believed in a conscious designer, is a consequence of basically very sim- and (2) almost everyone believed in a con- ple laws of physics. This is the process scious designer because they needed an of evolution by natural selection.6 explanation for biological complexity (i.e., they believed in the conscious designer The aim of this article is to examine the theory). Let us examine the first claim. validity of the Dawkins Model. Tenets 1–3 above are discussed in the next three sec- 1. Almost Everyone Believed in a Conscious tions. Then the history of evolutionary Designer theories and their relationships with materi- Even among The statement that there was almost univer- alism and theism are investigated, covering sal belief in biological design before 1859 is tenet 4 and related issues. nonmaterialist transparently false. We never will know how To help us understand this material, sev- many nonliterate materialists there have beliefs, eral definitions are required. They are: been, but literary materialism has arisen at Design: The quality pertaining to a structure least three times in three areas. They are: biological design that is generated in accordance with a 1. Greece. Modern Western materialism is conscious plan or concept, and on the derived, via various seventeenth- and eigh- has not been basis of conscious volition. teenth-century thinkers, from Democritus, God: An extracosmic conscious agent who Epicurus, and Lucretius. overwhelmingly is unitary, benevolent toward humans, 2. India. The Charvakas were one of the three and chronologically and ontologically non-Veda-accepting schools in the fifth cen- accepted outside ultimate. tury BC,8 and their thought always has been Judaism and Evolution: Biological descent in which influential, with the seventh-century philos- intergenerational differences are very opher Jayarasi Bhatta having been particu- 9 its derivatives. much smaller than interspecific ones, larly important. except when the direct results of 3. China. Hsün Tzu exerted a formative influ- It was often interspecific hybridization. ence on Confucianism.10 Wang Chung has Lamarckian evolution: Design-free evolution also had recurrent episodes of popularity.11 in which the frequency of heritable a minority Materialism probably seldom has been nu- changes is higher when functionally merically important. However, even among advantageous. position in nonmaterialist beliefs, biological design has Darwinian evolution: Non-Lamarckian not been overwhelmingly accepted outside design-free evolution in which selection Greco-Roman Judaism and its derivatives. It was often a is the sole means by which heritable minority position in Greco-Roman and In- changes are accumulated to form and Indian dian thought, and always has been unusual functional structures. This is a wide in East Asia. Dawkins appears to exclude definition, covering a number of thought, and the Asian civilizations, which is most of the heterodoxies. world’s population, from his category of always has been Darwinism: The doctrine that all organisms “almost everybody.”12 arose from nonliving matter solely by unusual in Darwinian evolution. In conclusion, disbelief in a designer is Paleontological novelty: The doctrine that ancient, common, and widespread. At the East Asia. different fossil-forming species appeared very least, therefore, it should be questioned on earth for the first time in different whether the existence of such was always geological eras. “self-evidently true” before 1859. Now let us examine Dawkins’s second claim. Was the ABD universally 2. Almost Everyone Believed in the Conscious Designer Theory accepted before Darwin? The ABD has been very far from universally Dawkins states that almost everybody accepted by believers in biological design. before 1859 firmly believed in the conscious Indeed, with a few partial exceptions (see designer as an explanation for the origin of Appendix), the ABD was not formulated until biological structures.7 This claim can be the late seventeenth century. It is notewor- broken down into two claims: (1) almost thy that it was not formulated by Anselm or 250 Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith Richard Thornhill Thomas Aquinas, Maimonides, or ibn Sina, the great intel- (c) Anselm’s ontological argument.22 lectual defenders of medieval Catholicism, Judaism, and (d)Pascal’s wager. This was formulated centuries before Islam, respectively. Pascal, by the Muslim philosopher Abu Hamid al 23 The first full-blown formulation of the ABD was prob- Ghazali. ably that of the theologian John Wilkins in 1672: No suggestion is intended that any of these arguments are And the failing in any one of these [Members], would valid, but they do show that theism did not exist in a purely cause an irregularity of the Body, and in many of nonrational sphere until early modern times. them, such as would be very notorious … Now to imagine, that all these things, according to their sev- eral kinds, could be brought into this regular Frame Was the ABD Valid Before Darwin? and Order, to which such an infinite number of Inten- The ABD has two components: (1) the complexity-to-design tions are required, without the Contrivance of some argument, i.e., the complexity of biological structures is wise Agent, must needs be irrational in the highest evidence that they were designed; and (2) the design-to- degree.13 God argument, i.e., their designer must have been God. The Puritan minister and natural historian John Ray Let us examine the first component. greatly expanded Wilkins’ argument over the next few Dawkins says that he could not imagine having been decades,14 and the ABD had a certain amount of influence an atheist before 1859, and that “Darwin made it possible in the early eighteenth century, being accepted by thinkers to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.”24 Yet, there is no such as the philosophe and encyclopédiste Denis Diderot.15 evidence that atheists living before 1859 felt themselves However, even then it was not very common, and was unfulfilled. If Darwinism were disproved today, there rarely formulated in detail before its most famous exposi- would be almost no alternative to accepting biological tion by William Paley in 1802.16 design.
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