Does Evolution have a Purpose?

I have already suggested that although design is not involved in evolution, this does not rule out purpose. 

1. I understand by design a detailed plan, drawn up before the proposed work is done.  God the designer is equivalent to the traditional Calvinist God, who created everything at the beginning, with no room for error.  Is it necessarily the case that God's purpose is best served by such an inflexible approach to creation?  Theologically it opens up several problems, such as why does a good (and absolute) creator allow suffering?  The answer must boil down to: it depends upon what God is trying to achieve.

Martin, on page 190, quotes Jacques Monod's 'postulate of objectivity': the systematic or axiomatic denial that scientific knowledge can be obtained on the basis of theories that involve, explicitly or not, a teleological principle.  I have already mentioned teleology and that it is normally something to be avoided in science.  However, it is not unreasonable to ask whether science could study purpose if there is evidence for it.

Natural Selection is a naturally occurring event, that does explain many adaptive changes (page 191).  It is not adequate though to explain evolution in its totality.  Biochemistry for example rules out evolution solely by chance.  Martin shows that the probability of chance evolution of, for example, blood clotting is far greater than the number of events that have occurred in the universe.

To reject a materialist approach to evolution is not to open the floodgates for all sorts of random beliefs.  Any consensus that develops will be based upon the scientific method and nothing else is permissible.  As Martin puts it (page 191):

To point out the holes in Darwinian theory, ... is to advance the cause of science.  It is not to revert to the superstitions of 200 years ago, and to assert, with Archbishop Ussher, that the world was created at 6pm one evening in the autumn of 4004 BC.  Nor is it to revert to a ridiculous literalism vis-a-vis the Bible.

Comments

[D C Cramer]

Great to have you as part of CC Blogs. Look forward to reading your work. Welcome!

[RogueMinister]

Fascinating, I have been have discussion lately with some friends who are staunch "creationists" and this brings a whole new perspective.

Anyway, I just wanted to welcome you to the CC Blogs fellowship and I look forward to reading more.