Introduction
Both natural scientists and intelligent design proponents agree that natural selection is “purposeful”. On the one hand natural scientists believe that evolution only appears purposeful but is in fact only because random natural selection is biased towards forms that are likely to survive. Is apparent purposiveness in life only the result of blind natural selection, or are there scientifically respectable ways to talk about purpose that still operate through selection? “The analysis we offer is deflationary. We regard teleonomy as a somewhat curious artifact of mid-20th century ‘teleophobia’.” (Dresow, 102). Teleology is the study of purpose. Raymond and Denis Noble write, “Physiology is concerned with function in living organisms. It is from this study of function that teleology, the study of purpose, emerges…” (358). Teleonomy, classically understood by neo-darwinists, is the apparent purposiveness of biological organisms. “Teleonomy is a product of selection, not its cause” (Dresow, 111). This article explains what natural selection is, what Intelligent Design claims, and how teleonomy (apparent purposiveness in organisms) can be used to interpret and evaluate natural selection from a Biblical and Patristic worldview.
Intelligent Design
Intelligent Design posits that there are features of the natural world that are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than random chance. These features include the complexity of living systems, the fine tuning of the universe, and the origin of life. All of these things required highly complex processes to be built and maintained. An important part of the intelligent design philosophy is that this system believes that intelligent design is detectable through these means. Intelligent design believes that there are certain patterns to the world that without a creator would not exist. The fine tuning of the world is an argument under Intelligent Design, which is in contrast to Neo-Darwinianism.
Neo-Darwinianism
In contrast to Intelligent Design, Neo-Darwinianism sees all things coming through natural selection and random chance. The core belief of Neo-Darwinianism is that natural selection is a blind and cumulative process that shapes complex adaptations without any foresight to what these adaptations will create. According to Richard Dawkins, Natural Selection is like a blind watchmaker. “Natural selection is the blind watchmaker, blind because it does not see ahead, does not plan consequences, has no purpose in view.” (Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker). This is because Dawkins prioritizes looking at gene level adaptations and how the genes cause the organism to change.
Since the genes, and genes alone cause an organism to adapt, then there is no cause of the changes from the organism level. The body has two kinds of cells: Body cells (Muscles, Skin, Brain) and Reproductive cells (Sperm/Eggs). Only changes in reproductive cells can pass traits on to offspring. Events that happen to body cells, such as getting a sun tan or bodybuilding, do not pass on into the genetic information of the reproductive cells. Only random mutations happen in the reproductive cells which leads to differences in the offspring through natural selection. This is known as the Weissman barrier. “The Weismann barrier postulates that genetic information passes only from the germline to the soma and not in reverse…” (Neuhof, Vertically, Abstract).
Richard Dawkins and the Neo-Darwinianists posit that only random chance in natural selection drives evolution. This random chance and random causation has given the universe all of its diversity including life on Earth. Every creature from the smallest microbe to the largest elephant stemmed from random chance over billions of years. This is in contrast to new theories from Dr. Dennis Noble, who is a British physiologist and pioneer of systems biology at the University of Oxford. He is best known for building the first viable mathematical model of the working heart in 1960. He most recently in 2023 co-edited Evolution “On Purpose”: Teleonomy in Living Systems. In this work Dennis contrasts Richard Dawkins and the Neo-Darwinianist view that Natural Selection is driven strictly by random chance in the reproductive cells. Rather evolution is driven by the whole system of an organism.
Nobles Critique
Noble argues that physiological function must be the primary means by which one interprets the story of how mankind thinks selection works. Physiological systems are like the heart, the brain, the skeletal system, and the muscles on the body. All of these have a purpose on the macro level. The heart pumps blood, the brain controls the body, the skeleton supports the body, and the muscles move the body. Each one of these systems has purposeful behavior which by looking at the genes themselves one may not be able to see. “Teleology became the ‘lady who no physiologist could do without, but who could not be acknowledged in public.’ This development has to be reversed.” (Noble, Physiology Restores…, Abstract; 357). There is a culture in the scientific world that treats the micro-world as a separate universe from the macro-world. They must be treated the same. The physiology of the individual affects the biology and chemistry of the cells of the individual. “Through problem-solving that precedes selection, life itself is the driving force of its own evolution” (Noble, 2024, J. Physiol., 602[11]: 2361–2365). Noble posits that phenotypes (physical traits) affect genotypes (genetics). Genes are not then the causes of evolution but tools of evolution. Genes themselves are like applications on a desktop computer that a person uses in order to complete a task. Noble argues that scientists are wrong about the Weissman barrier. The Weisman barrier according to Noble is passed through by tiny packages of RNA and DNA called Vesicles. This does not mean that the code (A, T, C, G) are always changed, it may just mean some genes are turned on or off. But sometimes a gene is changed out and a whole new mutation, driven by the mother and fathers environment and nutrition, is given to the child. This does not mean the organism is controlling what the changes are, rather that environmental and physiological factors play into the genetic makeup of a new child.
In a 2014 study, scientists implanted human melanoma tumor cells into male mice. The tumor cells were engineered to produce a human RNA marker called EGFP (Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein). These tumor cells are body cells (somatic) meaning they, according to the Weissman Barrier theory, should not be able to affect the sperm cells (germ line). What the scientists found was the RNA marker from the Tumor Cells was found in the sperm cells (Cossetti, Oncotarget, vol. 5, no. 24, 2014, pp. 11814–11824). According to Noble, evidence like this means that the Weissman barrier is not “Absolute”. This suggests that life itself is part of the process of its own evolution, and it is not blind random chance. Although Denis Noble is an atheist his theory shares striking similarity with both Platonism and patristic Christian Philosophy (Christian Neo-Platonism).
Platonic Similarities
Plato taught that the universe is structured by eternal forms or ideas. These forms are the perfect and unchanging patterns by which the physical world is ordered. These forms are what give purpose to objects and organisms within the universe. For example, water participates in water-ness and a living being participates in the form of “Life.”
He who framed this universe was a good Being, and therefore in his goodness he desired that all things should come as near as possible to being like himself. Wherefore, finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion, he reduced it to order out of disorder, considering that order was in every way better than disorder. Plato, Timaeus 29e–30a, trans. Benjamin Jowett.
According to Plato any decay we see are expressions of how finite matter does not perfectly express these forms. Aristotle later developed this into the categories of substance and accidents. Substance is the form of an object and accidents are its expression. The substance is the object’s enduring identity (horse, cup, human, bee). The accidents are physical expressions of that substance (The horse’s long teeth, the cup’s round lip, the human’s large brain, the bee’s fast wings). According to Aristotle (and Thomas Aquinas) every organism is a substance ordered towards an end (teleology; purpose). The accidents can vary through adaptation or mutation but the substance retains its form.
Since Dennis Noble rejects the gene centric view where life is seen as the sum of its genes he views organisms as integrated wholes. Organisms then are not heaps of atoms. They are a unity of form or substance that persist through change. “Life is naturally and necessarily purposive… It would be a misuse of language to deny that those purposes exist.” (Noble and Noble 357). Form and function are not given from the outside but are from within the organism.
Christian Fulfillment
In Christian philosophy the Triune God through His Word (Logos; Λογος) and Spirit (Pneuma; Πνευμα) forms the world from chaos to order. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Gen 1:1-3 KJV). In this passage, God the Father creates the cosmos. The cosmos was without form (chaos; no substance) and by the Word through the Spirit said “Let there be light” creating accidents through the substance of God’s mind. “The earth was invisible, because it had not yet received its form. … Darkness was over the deep, because the light had not yet been made. But the command came: Let there be light! and order began to shine out of confusion.” Ambrose of Milan, Hexameron I.6. Ambrose dissects this passage and shows the philosophical thought behind Genesis 1 in the ancient and hellenistic world of the time of Christ. This is how John interprets Genesis 1 through the coming of the Messiah.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1:1-5
This Word or Divine Logos (Λογος) is the mind of God. It is what Plato and Aristotle speculated gave shape to the whole of the universe when it was in chaos. The Word, Jesus Christ, is the substance of all things and gives them their accidents. In Christianity this Divine Mind of Plato became man giving us the ultimate interpretive guide to the universe: Jesus Christ. Ultimately these contextual, philosophical and ultimately biblical foundations can become the foundation and pillar by which the Christian interprets Natural Revelation (what God tells the world through Creation; Rom 1:18-20)
Integration
Natural Selection is the way in which through factors such as survival of the fittest, gene mutation, and random chance, parents pass on genetic traits to their offspring. These traits eventually are biased towards certain changes in the species leading to the diversity of life seen on Earth. If life is purely accidental then how do complex order, structure, and intelligence emerge? Dennis Noble fights the claim that these changes are purely on a genetic level and random. Rather Noble argues that these changes are on a physiological level: that the whole organism as a unit drives evolution. Noble argues that these physiological systems are purposeful. If they are purposeful then they have form, substance, and accidents. If Noble’s theories are correct then the Christian philosophies can be applied on all biological systems. That God, through the Divine Logos is the driver of these purposes. That the Divine Logos is the one that gives the organism its substance then expresses its accidents. That natural selection is not by random chance but the Divine Logos drives it to reflect His own pattern and order.
Conclusion
Is the apparent purposiveness in life merely the illusion of random natural selection, or does it reflect the deeper, intelligible order within creation? Neo-Darwinists claim that natural selection is completely blind and random. Dennis Noble, a contemporary and peer to Richard Dawkins claims evidence that life, from a physiological level has purpose. From a Christian perspective if life has integrated purpose then the one driving that purpose is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is driving chaos to order to specified patterns which are the creative thought of God. The Christian need no anxiety over whether to believe that God created the universe or that the universe is created by happenstance. In the end, natural selection and intelligent design are not enemies but are compatible as one truth. The universe from its smallest cell to largest galaxy, is moved according to the Divine Word which once said, “Let there be Light” and there was life.
Works Cited
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Evolution “On Purpose”: Teleonomy in Living Systems. Edited by Peter A. Corning, Stuart A. Kauffman, Denis Noble, James A. Shapiro, Richard I. Vane-Wright, and Addy Pross, MIT Press, 2023. doi:10.7551/mitpress/14642.001.0001.
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Noble, Denis, and Michael Joyner. “The Physiology of Evolution.” The Journal of Physiology, vol. 602, no. 11, 2024, pp. 2361–2365. doi:10.1113/JP284432.
Noble, Raymond, and Denis Noble. “Physiology Restores Purpose to Evolutionary Biology.” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 139, no. 4, 2023, pp. 357–369. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blac049.
Paley, William. Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. Edited by Matthew D. Eddy and David Knight, Oxford UP, 2006.
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Weismann, August. The Germ-Plasm: A Theory of Heredity. Translated by W. Newton Parker and Harriet Rönnfeldt, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893.
Noble, Denis. “Modern Physiology Vindicates Darwin’s Dream.” Experimental Physiology, vol. 107, no. 9, 2022, pp. 1015–1028. doi:10.1113/EP090133
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