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Anne Nguyen
Professor Lane
PHIL 8
13 July 2014
Assignment #3 (Biology)
Write a 500 word (or more) critical essay on the evolution vs. intelligent design debate by answering
this query: Why do the vast majority of biologists find evolution by natural selection to be more
persuasive than intelligent design/creationism. Conversely, why is intelligent design/creationism still
popular in America?
Evolution can mean several things, such as change over time, or minor changes within existing
species. However, most people think of “evolution” as being associated with Darwinism, which is the
theory that all living things are descended from a common ancestor by a process known as natural
selection. In contrast, the concept of intelligent design is based on inferring from evidence in nature that
some features of the world are better explained by an intelligent cause than by the unguided process of
natural selection. The vast majority of biologists find evolution by natural selection to be more
persuasive than intelligent design, because unlike intelligent design, which cannot be tested, evolution
by natural selection has undergone extensive research and experimentation to explain certain
developments in nature. However, intelligent design remains popular in America because there are still
people who believe that all the complexity and diversity of life in the world cannot be explained by
unguided processes over time, but rather from a higher being such as God.
In evolution, organisms undergo random changes due to mutations, some of which are
beneficial, and some of which are not. The environment in which an organism lives determines whether
or not a mutation is beneficial, and the organism that possesses a beneficial change will have a
significant advantage, resulting in these changes being passed down to offspring. For example, this is
why both fish and aquatic mammals, such as whales and dolphins have the same streamlined body
shape, which is the shape that is most efficient for moving through the water. In contrast, the organism
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that possesses less beneficial changes are at a disadvantage, because they are less likely to reproduce
and pass these changes onto offspring, which causes them to become extinct. For instance, in an
ecosystem, some giraffes have long necks and others have short ones, but if something caused shrubs to
die out, the giraffes with short necks would not be able to get enough food, which would cause them to
produce less offspring, and soon become extinct.
With all that being said, biologists would be able to argue that this theory of evolution can be
observed through fossil records of organisms that lived long ago and can be observed in nature, such as
in fruit flies and domesticated animals, which are “bred” to point out specific traits or to reduce others.
Dogs, cows, flowers, farm crops, etc., are all examples of controlled or applied evolution at work.
Biologists would also likely point out that like all natural processes, evolution is guided by laws that do
not change. For example, if one were to throw a ball up into the air, the path of the ball is not directed
by pure chance, but by the law of gravity. Additionally, if one were to put a hot object next to a cold
object, the transfer of heat is not directed by pure chance, but by the laws of thermodynamics. Finally, if
one were to place a population of randomly mutating organisms in an environment, the advantageous
or disadvantageous traits of their offspring is not due to chance, but is directed by the law of natural
selection. The evolution of these randomly mutating organisms will continue in the direction that makes
them better adapt to their environment.
Intelligent design attributes nature’s complexity to a higher being, or God, with having infinite
power to create life and to design the complexities of life in ways that cannot be fully understood by
human beings. Since an infinitely higher being could have actually created all things, and because we
cannot necessarily disprove the existence of a higher being through experimentation, we also cannot
rule out such a hypothesis. Thus, if we cannot rule out such a hypothesis, than this explanation of
intelligent design could be as valid as any other explanation, such as evolution. Intelligent Design then,
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can be taught as a valid theory for how life and the universe were created, which is why intelligent
design is still popular in America.