TY - JOUR T1 - Design in Nature and Purpose in Language. An Indictment of the Darwinian Theory on Grounds of False Verbal Logic A1 - Cruse, Don JA - Elem. d. Naturw. JF - Elemente der Naturwissenschaft PY - 1999 VL - 71 SP - 77 EP - 80 DO - 10.18756/edn.71.77 SN - p-ISSN 0422-9630 LA - en N2 -
There are numerous examples of what might be interpreted as accidental design in nature: the weathering of rocks into Hoodoos, the wave-sorting of pebbles on a beach according to size, the ice crystals that «Jack Frost» leaves on a window pane are only three of many such examples. What these and the other examples have in common, however, is that they are all confined to the inorganic realm and are fully explainable in terms of what we already know about the workings of natural law. In Darwinian and neo-Darwinian argument much is made of these and related examples in establishing the claim that nature is capable of «design without a Designer», indeed much of the theory’s claim to credibility is based upon such examples of inorganic natural organization.
Design in nature, however, goes far beyond the inorganic, and is at its most remarkable in the organic realm.
There are numerous examples of what might be interpreted as accidental design in nature: the weathering of rocks into Hoodoos, the wave-sorting of pebbles on a beach according to size, the ice crystals that «Jack Frost» leaves on a window pane are only three of many such examples. What these and the other examples have in common, however, is that they are all confined to the inorganic realm and are fully explainable in terms of what we already know about the workings of natural law. In Darwinian and neo-Darwinian argument much is made of these and related examples in establishing the claim that nature is capable of «design without a Designer», indeed much of the theory’s claim to credibility is based upon such examples of inorganic natural organization.
Design in nature, however, goes far beyond the inorganic, and is at its most remarkable in the organic realm.
There are numerous examples of what might be interpreted as accidental design in nature: the weathering of rocks into Hoodoos, the wave-sorting of pebbles on a beach according to size, the ice crystals that «Jack Frost» leaves on a window pane are only three of many such examples. What these and the other examples have in common, however, is that they are all confined to the inorganic realm and are fully explainable in terms of what we already know about the workings of natural law. In Darwinian and neo-Darwinian argument much is made of these and related examples in establishing the claim that nature is capable of «design without a Designer», indeed much of the theory’s claim to credibility is based upon such examples of inorganic natural organization.
Design in nature, however, goes far beyond the inorganic, and is at its most remarkable in the organic realm.