From Thermodynamics to Biology: A Critical Approach to ‘Intelligent Design’ Hypothesis

Abstract

When scientific method is not scrupulously followed, we move from objective to subjective knowledge. An example is provided by theistic cosmogonies, such as, the so-called theory (hypothesis, in reality) of ‘intelligent design’ (ID). It claims adequacy with all of the criteria defining scientific theory, thus placing it on an equal footing with evolutionism. Its motto can be summarised as ‘evolution – yes, but by divine design, not by natural selection.’ In this paper, the author ex-pounds some of the thermodynamic and biological arguments imply-ing that ID is an intrinsically religious notion that does not meet any scientific requirements and that simply represents another attempt to make cynical use of science in favour of unscientific postulates. ... the first quality that a living thing must have to be selectable is that of being forced to perish in its natural environment; death can be said to be the agent of perfection, and, ultimately, of the origin of life. The tendency to fall into disorder with the deval-uation of energy, which, as a general law of reality, is stated in said [second] principle of thermodynamics, is what paradoxical-ly determines, under certain conditions, the creation of a growing order. The theory of natural selection explains, then, how, within the evolutionary process of the whole of reality, mutually determines the processes that regulate increasing disorder and those in which a growing order is created, such as biological evolution on Earth [our own translation from Spanish].