04Mar 2026 by Post

The Levin Teleology Revolution Is Here

academia, Aristotle, Biological Theory, biology, Brian Charlesworth, Brian Miller, careers, cognition, computer code, David B. Resnik, designer, Douglas Futuyma, Evolution, Gen Z, gender issues, goal-directedness, graduate school, intelligence, Intelligent Design, intentionality, Jerry Coyne, Michael Levin, neo-Darwinians, neuroscience, Plato, Plato's Revenge, purpose, reactionaries, Richard Dawkins, Richard Sternberg, Stuart Burgess, teleology, Tufts University
He has assembled a global community of like-minded investigators who openly advocate teleological arguments harking back to Aristotle and Plato. Source
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04Oct 2024 by Post

Is the Human Eye Really Evidence Against Intelligent Design?

blind spot, capillaries, cephalopod, choriocapillaris, Douglas Futuyma, Evolution, evolutionary biologists, evolutionary theory, George Williams, human eye, Intelligent Design, Jerry Coyne, Jonathan Losos, Kenneth Mason, Kenneth Miller, Nathan Lents, optic nerve, oxygen, photocell, photoreceptor cell, retina, retinal pigment epithelium, Richard Dawkins, Richard Young, Susan Singer, The Blind Watchmaker, toxins, vertebrate
Good empirical science searches for explanations that fit the evidence. But another kind of “science” is committed to telling stories about unguided evolution. Source
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21Feb 2020 by Post

I Disagree with David Klinghoffer, But It’s My Fault for the Confusion

Against Method, arthropods, Brian Charlesworth, Cambrian Explosion, Charles Darwin, chordate, David Klinghoffer, Deborah Charlesworth, Douglas Futuyma, Evolution, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, Galápagos Islands, history, Intelligent Design, Jerry Coyne, Macroevolution, molluscan, natural selection, neo-Darwinian synthesis, Nicholas Barton, organisms, origin of life, Paul Feyerabend, William Paley
In a post yesterday, David Klinghoffer cited my comments in a recent podcast and described his own view that intelligent design could be considered as a theory of evolution, making the point that intelligent design tries to explain the innovations that happened in the history of life (e.g., the origin of life itself, the burst of complexity during the Cambrian explosion, etc.). I’d describe the situation a little differently. Evolution is an implication — that is, an empirical consequence — of design. Design is the more general (i.e., comprehensive) idea, and the well-understood phenomena usually designated as “evolution” are in fact consequences of designed systems undergoing or responding to perturbation. If anything, then, it would be more accurate to say that “evolution is a sub-theory of design,” no matter how…
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