In short, biological functions (which are by definition purposeful, in that the function exists to secure a biological end or goal) that depend on successful communication of information (which seems to be all biological functions, including those at the level of single-celled entities) cannot be the product of an evolutionary development based on random mutation/natural selection (i.e., a gradualist, step-by-step process). Rather, evolutionary development is drawn from an information source, e.g., Williams concept of inversely-causal meta-information. If there is an information source, then it follows that its information is purposeful.
And yet the natural sciences nowadays refuse to grapple with teleology, with the idea that nature is purposeful. Heres an interesting observation that helps provide perspective from a(n) (in)famous scientist whose name is associated with the ID movement:
Centuries ago nascent modern science took a crucial step. Breaking at last with the old Aristotelian thinking, it would no longer consider nebulous final causes in its explanations. Whether the ultimate purpose of, say, a mountain was to display the grandeur of God or something else could not be decided by an investigation of nature. Henceforth such questions would be relegated to philosophy or theology. Science would deliberately confine itself to issues about the mechanics of nature, and ignore issues of purpose. What a horse or a river or star is for would trouble science no longer.Thus Darwinists say purpose [teleology] in nature is only apparent, not real. Just as Dawkins says, when having to account for the obvious presence of design in nature, that this is not really design, but merely apparent design; he terms entities displaying this (to him fictional) quality as designoids.At the time it seemed like a prudent course of action. Yet the simplistic division of labor was doomed from the start, because some parts of nature quite clearly are for identifiable things. Science wished to explain the mechanics of nature apart from purpose, but especially in biology the mechanics themselves often cannot be understood apart from purpose. The function of a mountain may not be decidable, but the function of a wing surely is. The purpose of a horse might be obscure, but the purpose of a horses eye is not.
Biologists of course realized this. Only when Darwin seemed to provide a non-purposive explanation for apparent purpose could life itself be accommodated within the new framework. Biology was the last scientific discipline to come fully under the sway of non-Aristotelian, mechanistic thinking. Subsequently biologists continued to think and speak of aspects of life in terms of purpose, but only with the (usually implicit) understanding that is was merely apparent purpose. Although over the years many scientists acting as individuals concluded that purpose was real, official biology self-consciously restricted itself to considering only non-purposive explanations for the origin of the apparently purposeful systems of life.
I argue that this state of affairs is no longer tenable. Although for convenience humans may carve up intellectual pursuits into various academic disciplines, reality is not obliged to respect such boundaries. In order to come to grips with the real world in order to arrive at true explanations rationality demands that we abjure artificial distinctions when their usefulness appears to have reached its limit. Rather, in proposing explanations for nature we must use all of the data and all of the experience we have available. The end result of stubborn adherence to a simplistic division of nature into discoverable mechanics and undiscoverable purpose, I say, is nothing less than the official divorce of science from reason.
Michael Behe, When Science Renounces a Facet of Reason, Divine Action and Natural Selection, Singapore: World Scientific, 2009, p. 709f Emphasis added.
Just a couple observations. It is only by denying all consideration of teleology in physical nature that can man be fully integrated into the Darwinian biological picture. Of course, the denial of teleology in nature also means that man as a part of nature cannot be a self-conscious, goal-directed, intelligent actor in nature. And thus an extraordinarily important distinction regarding the actuality of the human person is lost thereby. And with it any recognition, let alone justification, of human free will.
The thought has occurred to me that the real battle between Darwinian evolution theory and ID is not being conducted on the grounds the Darwinists allege. They have skewed the debate by asserting that what ID is really all about is religious proselytization under the cover of science by those nefarious IDers, who are really only Bible-thumping, right-wing Christian fundamentalist kooks trying to smuggle Creationism (i.e., God) into the science classroom.
It's funny that folks who would say that purpose in nature is only illusory could be so very confident about the definiteness and actuality of purpose they ascribe to their "adversaries," i.e., anyone who advances the proposition that intelligent design is a legitimate scientific hypothesis. (As if Darwinists never have purposes of their own.)
But I think the real battle is about whether final causes ought to be reintroduced into scientific thinking or not. Obviously, the Darwinists are saying absolutely not. The IDers are saying, if you dont, science becomes increasingly irrational and counterproductive.
One last thought, re: initiation of biological messages. I thought Fr. Coynes discussion of the distinctions between creation and origin (quoted in an earlier post of mine) provides an excellent framework under which to consider this aspect of the problem. As youll recall, Coyne does not regard creation as having been only a one-time, start-up event that got the whole universe going in the beginning, but as the on-going universal requirement of biological existence itself. In other words, existent things are such only because they are constantly participating in Being. That is, biological life is contingent on Being which is divine. Christians would call this: Divine Providence. Ill say no more about this here, but just offer it as food for thought.
Thank you ever so much, dearest sister in Christ, for your excellent essay/post!
Also, your insights to Fr. Coynes discussion of the distinctions between creation and origin are very engaging. Certainly, the initiation of successful communication in living things is not a one time event.
Again, thank you so very much for your wonderful essay-post, dearest sister in Christ!