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INTELLIGENT
DESIGN, FINE TUNING & EVOLUTION THEORY:
A SYNOPSIS OF COMPETENT RATIONAL THEORIES Prabhat Kumar Singh Department of Civil
Engineering |
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Darwinian theory
of biological evolution is based on the trial-and-error process of variation
and natural selection of systems where the selection is natural in the sense
that there is no actor or purposive system or design involved for making the
selection. The implicit goal of natural selection is maintenance or
reproduction of a configuration. The specific interpretation of Darwinism
sees evolution as the result of selection by the environment acting on a
population of organisms competing for resources where the winners will be
selected and others are eliminated. On the other hand, the intelligent design
movement which states that the kind of information inherent in the universe,
and in biological evolution in particular, cannot be generated by
purposeless, random causation, thereby places the identity of a causative
intelligence. Moreover, intelligent design proponents also raise the concept
of fine-tuning, for example, fine-tuning of tightly restricted values of
universal constants that allow survival of life in the universe. They assert
that small changes in these constants would correspond to a very different
universe, not conducive to the establishment and development of matter, life
or astronomical structures. |