Discarded Design

In 1859, Charles Darwin published a book, The Origin of Species, in which he described his radical theory that all life on earth is descended from a common ancestor and that natural selection is the process driving evolution. While Darwin's theory has become accepted by the scientific community, it has met with resistance from those whose religious beliefs contend that the universe and everything in it was created by a deity.

In an attempt to legitimise their beliefs, some creationists have proposed a concept called intelligent design as an alternative to evolutionary theory. Intelligent design contends that there are systems in nature that are so complex (such as the eye, feathered wings and biochemical systems at the cellular level) that they could not have arisen by natural selection and therefore must have been designed by an intelligent entity. Intelligent design, however, does not qualify as a scientific theory because it cannot be tested experimentally and does not generate hypotheses or predictions.

The design of complex natural systems has also been used as an argument against intelligent design and therefore as an argument against creationism. An intelligent designer would be expected to create complex natural systems using the best possible design, and it has been argued that the existence of flawed designs such as the human appendix, green plants and junk DNA supports evolutionary theory and not intelligent design.

Recently, a new idea has emerged which has made the scientific community re-think its arguments against intelligent design. A multi-disciplinary research group from Harvard University in the USA have published a discussion paper on discarded design in the February edition of the science journal Evolve. According to this new idea, something as complex as life on a planet such as earth could not have been created exactly right on the first attempt and would need a few practice tries. The co-existence of well designed and poorly designed complex natural systems here on earth points to it being a practice run which was discarded and sent to the far reaches of the universe while a better version was created.

Interestingly, the discarded design concept suggests that there is not just one creator but a committee of creators with an unknown number of members contributing to design features. As anyone who has worked on a large project as part of a team will know, this explains the large variation in designs here on earth and the need for trial runs before the right version is agreed upon. Unlike intelligent design, discarded design may be able to be recognised as a scientific theory. As with any new idea, discarded design has been met with scepticism by the scientific community but if we ever find life on other planets with similar natural systems that have improved or worse designs compared to life here on earth then that will be seen as supporting evidence.

 

 Oh yeah, plants that process an endlessly supplied energy source (sunlight) and breath a common gas, as well as animals that consume these plants and or each other to grow is such a wacky ecosystem that it would never occur anywhere else unless God (or something else that is God with another name) put it there.

j3ph_42, March 8, 2006 12:10

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