Another challenge to evolution

What is ‘intelligent design’?

It’s the theory that life did not evolve by a series of chance mutations, as Darwin hypothesized, but according to blueprints drawn up by some intelligent, outside force. This idea was first called “intelligent design“ in the 1991 book Darwin on Trial, by University of California law professor Phillip Johnson. Mainstream scientists dismiss intelligent design as nothing more than a cleverly updated version of creationism, the belief that God created the universe.

How is it different from creationism?

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Creationists accept the Adam and Eve story from the Bible as literal truth, and have deduced from their readings of Scripture that the earth was created 6,000 years ago-instead of 4.6 billion years ago, as science contends. Though most proponents of intelligent design are Christian believers, they allow for a much looser interpretation of the Bible, and accept what geology and other sciences say about the age of the planet. But they say that human beings and other complex creatures could not have risen from the primordial muck without the existence of an intelligently crafted plan.

What’s their evidence?

Intelligent design proponents say the fossil record does not back up the assertions spelled out in Darwin’s 1859 work, The Origin of Species. Darwin maintained that lower life forms evolved over billions of years through natural mutations that improved their chances of survival. Single-celled bacteria developed into human beings, Darwin said, through an extended process of trial and error that promoted the survival—and reproduction—of creatures well-adapted to the natural environment. But while the fossil record does show staccato progress from one-celled creatures to man, many transitional creatures are missing. Johnson, the lawyer who started the intelligent design movement, points to the missing links in the fossil record as one of the reasons Darwin’s case would not stand up in court.

What do fossils show?

From 4.6 billion to 4 billion years ago, the only life that existed on Earth was, essentially, pond scum—bacteria, plankton, and algae. Then, about 570 million years ago, complex creatures began appearing during a burst of evolution and extinction known as the “Cambrian explosion“ (named for the geological period in which it took place). The earliest of these fossils appeared seemingly out of nowhere, without any fossil evidence of evolutionary precursors. Evolutionists argue that the absence of older fossils does not mean earlier life forms didn’t exist, only that for some reason their fossils were not preserved. Intelligent design’s proponents say the sophistication of these early earthlings is evidence that an external force or principle was propelling primitive life toward complexity.

How do they support this view?

Complex creatures, including man, simply could not have evolved by pure trial and error, says Michael Behe, a Lehigh University biochemist and intelligent design guru. Behe says many natural systems are “irreducibly complex.” Without any one of the cogs in these living machines, the whole system ceases to function. For example, more than a dozen proteins must be present for blood to clot; if a single protein is missing, clotting doesn’t occur. Behe says blood clotting could not have evolved step-by-step, by accident, but must have emerged all at once. Indeed, he and his allies say, the entire universe shows evidence of having been designed to promote life.

How’s that?

The laws of physics, as they emerged in the seconds after the big bang, were perfectly calibrated to permit the emergence of life. A minute change in the force of gravity, for example, would have made stars burn out a million times faster, making it impossible for life to evolve on the planets whirling around them. A slight tweak in the mass of protons and neutrons would have changed chemistry, and made life impossible. Scientists concede this, but say it would be foolish to read any purpose into these laws. Intelligent design theory calls the perfect suitability of the universe for life “the anthropic principle,” and deems it the ultimate evidence of an underlying architectural plan. Behe compares the existence of human life to finding a radio in the woods. “By its intricacy,” he says, “you know it had to be put together by intellect.”

So who was the designer?

The masterminds of intelligent design theory won’t say. “It could be space aliens,” says William Dembski, a mathematician whose book, No Free Lunch, is one of the cornerstones of the theory. Evolutionists point out that the movement’s principal champions are all devoutly religious. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, says Dembski and his cohorts are just being cagey so that intelligent design isn’t labeled a religious belief and thus banned from the schools. “Everybody knows they’re talking about God,” she said.

Who’s right?

The vast majority of scientists stand by Darwin. They say intelligent design arguments are “a wedge“ designed to force religious belief back into the gap between what science knows and what it can only presume. Most Americans apparently think the scientists take themselves too seriously. More than 40 percent of respondents to several polls over the last decade said they believed that God created life, although they accepted the idea that humans and other life forms gradually evolved into their present form. In a 1995 Gallup poll, more than 40 percent of Americans said the Bible has it right in the book of Genesis, which says God created life on Earth in six days about 6,000 years ago.

The battle in the schools

Students in America’s public schools are taught the theory of evolution, but it wasn’t always so. In 1925, a teacher named John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution, and his sensational trial sparked a media circus. Scopes was found guilty of violating a law against teaching evolution, which was considered heretical in a society that still warmly embraced the Bible’s story of creation. (Scopes’ conviction was later overturned.) By the end of the 20th century, science had prevailed, and textbooks that taught evolution were the only ones accepted in public schools. The U.S. Supreme Court, in fact, ruled in 1987 that creationism was a religious belief, and thus could not be taught in public schools. But the fight continues. Three years ago, the state of Kansas’ board of education voted to remove evolution from the required curriculum for science classes. That decision was quickly overturned when voters ousted creationist board members. The battle now rages in Ohio, where the state board of education is now considering teaching intelligent design as an alternative theory to evolution. The proposal is being fueled by a Seattle-based group called the Discovery Institute, a think tank for intelligent design theorists partly founded by Christian organizations. The battle may wind up in the state.’s legislature and, ultimately, in the courts.