> Russ said that "the new paradigm is generally favored only by the younger
> workers; older ones are too much committed and too set in their ways." That
> is only a small part of the story. What is needed is a better theory. A
> better theory is one that accounts for all the data that the defective theory
> covers plus it explains additional evidence that the old one ignores or fails
> to elucidate.
>
> This raises the question, is ID a theory? Or is it, as I believe, a set of
> observations (irreducible design) supported by an explanatory principle that
> is theological and/or philosophical (theistic) in nature. The best way to
> make ID a theory that has the power to stop the carping of the scientific
> critics is to insert a naturalistic process between irreducible design on the
> one hand and an intelligent designer on the other. The best process for this
> purpose lies close at hand--the process of development. Development is the
> indisputable process that produces Mike's irreducible complexity found in
> individual organisms. Development creates design not only in the individual
> but in the phyletic lineage. Development needs to be expanded theoretically
> into a phyletic process that accounts for the rise and subsequent
> differentiation of major groups of complex animals since the Cambrian. The
> phyletic germ line of these animals does not evolve, as Mayr would have it;
> rather it is predesigned with the major phyletic morphological and
> anatomical characteristics imbedded in it, that unfold over geologic time as
> revealed in the fossil record. It is the instrument of choice, let us say,
> whereby God brings about design in the organic world. In this way it
> connects design and the Designer.
>
One line of evidence presented in the Mere Creation conference was a
of basic type biology, which is being tested by hybridization studeies at
least in one lab. in Germany. I propose a model of Polyphyletism which may
account for these "basic types". This idea also is strengthen by the
discussion on the ubiquitous "homeotic genes" which turn on developmental
pathways in various organisms. They serve as only switches with no
informational content. The origins of all these developmental genetic
pathways can also be accounted by polyphyletism, so can the Cambrian
explosions as well as the irreducible complexities of the biochemical
systems. I believe this approach will yield fruitful results and
predictions. Instead of debating the validity of this approach, let us get
on to do some hard experimental or systematic work to come up with some
good "scientific theories" based on the design paradigm.
-------------------------------------
Dr. Pattle Pun
Professor of Biology
Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 60187
eMail: Pattle.P.Pun@wheaton.edu
Phone: (630)752-5303
FAX: (630)752-5996