. . .intelligent design does not necessarily imply a designer. Aristotle says that whatever can come to be by art—i.e. by intelligent design—can come to be by chance—i.e. without a designer. There is, incidentally, nothing in the Darwinian theory of evolution, that excludes the possibility that this is the way that God created. Evolutionary theory is itself neutral towards the different possible answers to the question, Why is there evolution? Is not the discovery of the evolutionary process itself an achievement of evolution? Is not the movement of the evolutionary process from the lower to the higher, e.g. from single celled organisms to the higher primates, and, eventually, to man, a purposeful process? Are not the intermediate stages instrumental to the final stages? Is this not a definition of intelligent design?
[See, that's whut I been a'sayin' --ed.]
We are reminded that, in the Creation story in Genesis, after God had finished, he said that the work he had done was "very good." But no one, not even God, can look upon a work as good, without having had a previous idea of what constituted goodness. The idea of goodness—what Plato would call the idea of the good—must pre-exist any work called good. To call a work good, whether that accomplished by God in Genesis, or that accomplished by Darwin in the Origin of Species, implies a
pre-existing design. It does not of itself however imply a designer. Evolution, if true, was as true before discovered by Darwin, as afterwards. The goodness God discovered in his handiwork must have been good before he created, or he could not have called it good afterwards. Unless the theory of evolution itself is the account of an intelligent design, culminating in a being capable of discovering the theory of evolution, it would be meaningless. Whether this intelligent design is the result of chance, or of an intelligent designer, is an entirely different question.
Translation: "formal" and "final" causes (there's Aristotle again) must exist before material and efficient causes. So if evolution is true, it rests on design. Note to judges, school boards and editors:This is a matter of philosophy, not religion (the "entirely different question" Prof. Jaffa mentions being the religious question you're concerned about). Please take Logic 101 before presuming to commment further.
