Essay - Intelligent Design When Charles Darwin Made His Trip to the...

Intelligent Design

When Charles Darwin made his trip to the Galapagos Islands and wrote On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, other theories had already been suggested to explain the variation in life forms. About 100 years before Darwin was born, English theologian William Paley introduced the now memorable watchmaker analogy. If a pocket w*****tch is found in a field, ***** wrote in 1802, it is immediately *****ferred that it was produced not by natural processes but ra*****r by a designing human intellect. Likewise, he reasoned, t***** na*****ural world contains abundant evidence ***** a supernatural creator. This became the theory of intelligent design (ID) (Zimmer 12). It differed from fundamentalist creationism, because it accepted that some species do change, although not by much, and ***** the Earth is much older than 6,000 *****. They also avoid the word God unlike ***** creationists. Further, the ID movement rarely takes any theological stance. In attempting to make their case, ***** advocates have focused on two cr*****ical questions: (1) Is science, in pr*****ciple, able to detect evidence ***** design in nature? and (2) ***** there, ***** fact, any such evidence of genuine design in nature and ***** the biological world in particular?

Despite ***** fact that natural selection has been the prevailing theory since the 1800s, over the last decade or so, an increasing number of scientists in microbiology ***** mathematics, lawyers, philo*****phers, theologians and teachers, are once again strongly supporting intelligent design. ***** group of followers also wants equal billing—having the ID concept included in the science curriculum of schools. In fact, some school districts are already seriously considering this argument.

The ********** theory ***** evolution states ***** one of the prime motives for all ***** is to reproduce and survive, passing on the genetic informati***** of the species ***** one generation to the next. Species, however, tend to produce more offspring ***** the environment can support. The resources required to nour*****h these individuals puts pressure on the size of the ***** populati*****, which leads to increased competition Some organisms will ***** survive. The organisms that are better suited to their *****, or exhibit ***** desir***** characteristics, have a better ch*****nce of survival. This is referred to as "***** of the fittest" (Mayr 118)

***** survival of ***** better suited *****ganisms led Darwin to conclude that ***** organisms had evolved over time, allowing those species with more desirable ***** to surve and pass on ***** genes to future generations. Since environments change, and thus require different characteristics, different organisms ***** be successful in different ecological niches (ibid).

Scientists who *****lieve ***** ***** design *****fer varying rationale to refute the natural selection *****ory depending on their areas of expertise. For example, a book called

The ***** Inference (1998) by mathematical philosopher William Dembski, argues that modern science no longer regards ***** ***** Aris*****tle's four types of causes--formal and final--thereby restricting its own explanatory position. Science is incomplete without joining forces with the ID theory. Ar*****totle identified material causes, what *****thing