Favorite Arguments from Paley I: Day & Night

Busy busy busy! To buffer against the death of my blog, my next few posts will focus on various arguments from Paley that I am particularly fond of (aside from the few arguments I discussed in my previous post). The first argument I chose is not related to intelligent design as we normally think of it; instead, Paley’s awe towards the relation of living organisms to the cycles of day and night evokes a wider sense of design in the universe than the narrowly constructed “God must have designed the bacterial flagellum.” Paley sees design in the construction of the heavens itself. As Paley points out, this relation is quite wondrous!

On the Rotatability of Evolutionary Branches, or On Life’s Little Joke, or On Why We Ain’t Special

“It is obvious to common sense that some organisms are higher than others – that a dog is higher than his fleas, or a fish higher than a jellyfish.” – Julian Huxley, in Evolutionary Humanism

It may be common sense, but common sense isn’t always right.

The most rampant misconceptions of how evolution works all coincide with how we humans perceive ourselves. Many believe we are the ultimate goal of evolution, that our existence is inevitable, and that we are superior to all other species – we are perched at the top of the ladder: the Ascent of Man.