Evolution and Intelligent Design in the age of faith and reason

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Evolution and Intelligent Design in the age of
faith and reason

• Is there an Islamic perspective?

Imran Nasrullah, Esq.
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Background

• Several school districts across the country have
  enacted local measures to place Intelligent
  Design into the school curriculum along with
  Evolution as a viable alternative to Evolution.
• Other measures required a disclaimer to be placed
  in school science books stating that Evolution
  was a theory with unexplainable gaps, and that
  other explanations, i.e. Intelligent Design
  should be taught.
• Part of a concerted effort between Christian
  conservatives and Intelligent Design proponents
• Set up battle lines between secularists/atheists
  and religious conservatives

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Background

• Christian conservatives view Darwinism and
  Evolution as an atheistic domination over
  American culture
• Intelligent Design appears to be gathering
  momentum even among non-Christian conservatives
• Battle line now seems between people of faith
  versus secularists/atheists
• Secularists claiming that Evolution and the
  Science obviate the need for God

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The culture war

• Christian conservatives (primarily) have come to
  see Evolution as a threat to their religious
  beliefs
• Take over of the education system by atheists
• Devolution of American culture by Godlessness

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The culture war

• Evolution has been claimed by Atheists/Secularists
  
• Evolution obviates the need for God because it
  demonstrates that life and species arise without
  divine will
• Science is increasingly perceived as a threat to
  faith.
• Evolution is considered one of the cornerstones
  of modern science
• Conservatives are attempting to bring faith-based
  Cause into science class
• Allegedly through Intelligent Design
• Alternative to Evolution
• As a counter to efforts by Atheists/Secularists

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Darwins discovery

• Darwin himself was reluctant to publish his
  findings because the current climate of religious
  orthodoxy.
• Aware of the religious implications of his
  theoryatural selection can be expressed as the
  following general law (taken from the conclusion
  of The Origin of Species)
• If there are organisms that reproduce, and
• If offspring inherit traits from their
  parents(s), and
• If there is variability of traits, and
• If the environment limits the size of natural
  populations,
• Then those members of the population with
  maladaptive traits (as determined by the
  environment) will die out or reproduce less, and
• Then those members with adaptive traits (as
  determined by the environment) will survive to
  reproduction or reproduce more
• The result is the evolutionary change of
  populations and eventually of species.
• He waited until he was 50, happily married, and
  settled before publishing
• Darwin would have been branded a blasphemer, and
  sedition
• Darwin, himself, was religious and believed in
  God (early career was seminary school) and
  thought Evolution as another example of Gods
  handiwork

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Darwins theory of Natural Selection

• Darwin's theory of evolution has four main parts
  
• Organisms have changed over time, and the ones
  living today are different from those that lived
  in the past. The world is not constant, but
  changing.
• All organisms are derived from common ancestors
  by a process of branching. Over time, populations
  split into different species, which are related
  because they are descended from a common
  ancestor. It also explained why similar species
  tended to occur in the same geographic region.
• Change is gradual and slow, taking place over a
  long time. This was supported by the fossil
  record, and was consistent with the fact that no
  naturalist had observed the sudden appearance of
  a new species.
• This is now contested by a view of episodes of
  rapid change and long periods of stasis, known as
  punctuated equilibrium.
• The mechanism of evolutionary change was natural
  selection.

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Natural selection

• Natural selection can be expressed as the
  following general law (taken from the conclusion
  of The Origin of Species)
• offspring inherit traits from their parents(s),
  and
• If there is variability of traits, and
• If the environment limits the size of natural
  populations,
• Then those members of the population with
  maladaptive traits (as determined by the
  environment) will die out or reproduce less, and
• Then those members with adaptive traits (as
  determined by the environment) will survive to
  reproduction or reproduce more
• The result is the evolutionary change of
  populations and eventually of species.

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What is science (methodology)

• A methodology by which observation of natural
  phenomenon posits a hypothesis- a theory of
  explanation regarding the phenomenon- which in
  turn is tested against controlled observation.
• The failure of the controlled observation to
  support the hypothesis renders the hypothesis
  untenable.
• Controlled observation must be measurable and
  observable
• Testing of the hypothesis must be repeatable and
  reproducible by others
• Iterative process of inductive reasoning and
  deductive reasoning
• Inductiion the attempt to create some general
  principle from some observations-which both
  describes what happened and, more importantly,
  explains why it happened- Hypothesis
• Deduction From the general principle which
  putatively describes accurately and explains the
  observed phenomenon, to testing of hypothesis to
  assess its validity by predicting outcomes. This
  is accomplished by creating predictions - these
  are phrased as statement in the form "if
  principle P is true, then event E should occur or
  fact F should be true."
• TestingOnce we have predictions, it is time to
  go out and actually see what we find by
  collecting more observations. We try to determine
  if some fact (F) is already true about the world
  or if some event (E) occurs or can be caused to
  occur.
• Accumulated body of knowledge of the observable
  world (physical reality) obtained through the
  systematic pursuit of observation, hypothesis,
  prediction, and testing

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Intelligent Design

• Irreducible Complexity
• The notion that certain biological systems/organs
  cannot be reduced any further without
  compromising their innate function.
• Therefore, how could the system/organ evolve into
  its present form since certain basic components,
  unless installed simultaneously, are absent or
  in a deficient state
• The conclusion there must be an intelligent
  designer
• Finding a watch on the beach
• Flagella on a bacteria
• The optical system of the eye

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Irreducible Complexity
What happens when you remove a component? Can
this arise through evolutionary means?
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Paradigm shift

• A scientific revolution occurs, according to
  Kuhn, when scientists encounter anomalies which
  cannot be explained by the universally accepted
  paradigm within which scientific progress has
  thereto been made. The paradigm, in Kuhn's view,
  is not simply the current theory, but the entire
  worldview in which it exists, and all of the
  implications which come with it.
• When enough significant anomalies have accrued
  against a current paradigm, the scientific
  discipline is thrown into a state of crisis
  Eventually a new paradigm is formed, which gains
  its own new followers, and an intellectual
  "battle" takes place between the followers of the
  new paradigm and the hold-outs of the old
  paradigm .
• -Kuhn

Kuhn used the duck-rabbit optical illusion to
demonstrate the way in which a paradigm shift
could cause one to see the same information in an
entirely different way.
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Paradigm shifts

• a new scientific truth does not triumph by
  convincing its opponents and making them see the
  light, but rather because its opponents
  eventually die, and a new generation grows up
  that is familiar with it." Max Planck
• Newtonian physics to relativistic physics
• Maxwells theory of aether to Einsteins universe
  (spacetime)
• Science is a human endeavor and therefore
  susceptible to human biases, prejudices, and
  politics
• Science seems susceptible to dogma, just like
  religion
• "microevolution," the ability of species to
  adapt to changing conditions in their
  environment. But he holds to the opinion that
  science has not convincingly shown that one
  species can evolve into anotherI think there's a
  lot of problems with evolutionary dogma." -Dr.
  Gregory J. Brewer
• Intelligent Design could be another
  reconciliation between Ultimate Reality and
  physical reality
• If only the secularists and ID could stop talking
  past each other
• Are other advances in science, mathematics, and
  cosmology suggesting additional mechanisms at
  work besides Evolution

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The role of faith in religion and science

• Does Evolution necessarily obviate religion?
• Does religion necessarily exclude Evolution?

Evolution is a natural law and thus one of the
laws God and His creation
Interpretation
Darwinian fundamentalists (secularists primarily)
and religious fundamentalists
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Faith

• Much of science is taken on speculation and faith
  despite the lack of data, observation, etc.
• Many worlds hypothesis/multiverse
• Universe is part of a foam of other universes
• Having the right conditions for life are
  Cosmologically remote, and yet we are willing to
  believe in those odds on the other hand, belief
  in God is considered to be putting faith in the
  improbable

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In the News
December 21, 2005 Judge Rejects Teaching
Intelligent Design By LAURIE GOODSTEIN HARRISBURG
, Pa., Dec. 20 - A federal judge ruled on Tuesday
that it was unconstitutional for a Pennsylvania
school district to present intelligent design as
an alternative to evolution in high school
biology courses because it is a religious
viewpoint that advances "a particular version of
Christianity." Eleven parents in Dover, a
growing suburb about 20 miles south of
Harrisburg, sued their school board a year ago
after it voted to have teachers read students a
brief statement introducing intelligent design in
ninth-grade biology classThe statement said that
there were "gaps in the theory" of evolution and
that intelligent design was another explanation
they should examine. -New York Times
February 15, 2006 Ohio Board Undoes Stand on
Evolution By JODI RUDOREN COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb.
14 The Ohio Board of Education voted 11 to 4
Tuesday to toss out a mandate that 10th-grade
biology classes include critical analysis of
evolution and an accompanying model lesson plan,
dealing the intelligent design movement its
second serious defeat in two months. The board
stripped the language from the curriculum partly
out of fear of a lawsuit in the wake of a
December ruling by a federal judge that teaching
intelligent design in the Dover, Pa., public
schools was unconstitutional. Darwin's defenders
celebrated the reversal as a sign of a backlash
against the inroads made last year by critics of
evolution. But leaders of the Discovery
Institute, the intellectual home of intelligent
design, warned that Ohio's move would create a
backlash of its own. "The effort to try to
suppress ideas that you dislike, to use the
government to suppress ideas you dislike, has a
failed history," Mr. West said. "Do they really
want to be on the side of the people who didn't
want to let John Scopes talk or who tried to
censor Galileo? -New York Times