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Evolution and the argument from design

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Kenneth V. Nelson
Kenneth V. Nelson
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Cornell University
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Extract

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

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , December 1978 , pp. 423 - 443
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

The Life and Letters of Darwin, Charles (ed. Darwin, F., Appleton, 1893), vol. i, p. 278.Google Scholar

In this paper I am considering only the property of intelligence, rather than other properties such as goodness, power, and unity. Also, I am not considering arguments related to the argument m design, such as the teleological argument (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q. 2, art. 3), and the wider teleological argument (cf. Tennant, F. R., Philosophical Theology, Cambridge tiversity Press, 1956, vol. 11, chap. iv).Google Scholar

page 426 note 1 For example, Plantinga, Alvin, God and Other Minds (Cornell University Press, 1967), chap. 4.Google Scholar

page 427 note 1 Facts supporting this theory include that the farthest galaxies are moving away the fastest, evidence that quasars evolved, and mainly its prediction of the 3° background radiation and the initial percentage of helium, both of which were later confirmed.

page 427 note 2 Evidence that stars evolve in this way includes that we can now observe stars in different stages of their birth, life, and eventual death (when they burn out their available hydrogen).

page 427 note 3 Evidence for this theory includes observations of similar preplanetary nebulae around young stars.

page 428 note 1 We have evidence both that the basic chemical building blocks for life do occur naturally in the universe, e.g. as found in meteorites, and that they can react with ultraviolet light to produce the basics for life, as duplicated in laboratory experiments by Miller.

page 428 note 2 Evidence for biological evolution comes from comparative anatomy and fossil evidence, as well as examples of evolution in action.

page 428 note 3 For example, Hurlbutt, Robert, Hume, Newton, and the Design Argument (University of Nebraska Press, 1965), p. 180.Google Scholar

page 431 note 1 For example, Eiseley, Loren, Darwin's Century (Anchor Books, 1961), p. 197.Google Scholar

page 432 note 1 On the Origin of Species (London, 1859), pp. 48–56.Google Scholar

page 436 note 1 Discourse on Method, Part v.

page 443 note 1 Psalms 19:1.