Darwinian Dogma

© 2009 Nicolas Valenzuela
First posted September 11, 2009

I was reading in bed tonight, and I had an idea. Not 
wanting to wake my wife, I quietly got out of bed, 
turned out the light, and came downstairs to share this 
idea with anyone reading this essay.

In the same way human beings rage about abortion, 
politics, and religion, and in the same way all families 
with more than one child seem to possess a constant 
state of sibling friction from what I informally refer to as 
the "Cain and Abel" effect, and in the same way our 
more recent U.S. presidential elections are hair's-breadth 
close in the popular vote... well, basically, we are 
somehow statistically guaranteed (as a species) to not 
agree in certain fundamental ways of looking at the 
world.

Darwinian Dogma vs. Intelligent Design. That's what the 
"modern" argument regarding biological evolution boils 
down to. For clarity here, I will state that modifications 
to a species are proven to occur, so that is not in 
dispute; it's when Darwin's theory is extended to the 
creation of *new* species that the controversy arises. 
To date, there is neither conclusive fossil nor 
reproducible experimental evidence of the creation of 
new species via natural selection. Thus the "creationists" 
won't be silenced, regardless of intellectual intimidation 
and other censoring methodologies of the neo-Darwinians.

Each side is inflexibly devoted to its own view of the 
universe, but the two separate approaches to the debate 
are not at all similar.

Intelligent Design (ID) proponents obviously formed 
their universe-view from a belief in some sort of creative 
higher intelligence, whatever it may be. This belief is not 
in dispute, although neo-Darwinians claim that this 
particular belief is the "hidden" basis of the ID agenda. 
The more accurate description of the ID camp is that 
they simply want to look at evidence from a different 
perspective. While the core motivation of ID proponents 
may be "religious," their desire to examine the physical 
evidence from a different angle can hardly be called 
ignorant or superstitious. History is more than full of 
examples of how correct explanations of previously not-
understood phenomena were initially considered too 
fantastic to be believable. And... hasn't quantum physics 
sufficiently demonstrated that reality doesn't always 
conform to what our intuition tells us is correct?

Darwinian fanboys, however, due to their unwillingness 
to peer at the evidence through any lens but the 
suggestions presented in "The Origin of Species," have 
backed themselves into the ugly corner of constantly 
defending the various recognized discrepancies in the 
theory. When a conclusive answer is not available, the 
neo-Darwinian's official response is always some form of 
"the fossil record is incomplete," or "the critics are being 
unscientific."

And the standard catcall of the Darwinian Scoffers? Isn't 
their ultimate objection to Intelligent Design that it 
simply isn't a viable, scientific, legitimate explanation? 
Not "true science?" Or more simply stated, they reject all 
criticism of the Darwinian paradigm by declaring that 
"what value is criticism without a 'viable' alternative 
explanation for the origin of biological life?"

For once, it would be nice to experience a little honesty, 
instead of all the vehement adherence by both sides to 
their own beliefs. This is what it truly comes down to: 
the same tunnel vision that causes humans to bicker 
about abortion or the death penalty is the same strange 
trait that makes us feud about the origin of biological 
life.

We bring our own preconceptions to the table; both 
sides are guilty of this. All the accusations of ignorance, 
dogma, lack of scientific license, dishonesty, etc., etc., 
etc.... they are a waste of time and breath. The truth is 
our origin may forever remain a mystery, or better yet, 
when the empirical truth is finally discovered, it may be 
something that surprises both sides of the evolution 
argument.

What was the idea I had while reading tonight? Try this 
on for size...

While an actual proof of the existence of God may never 
be possible in this reality, there is something I *do* 
believe is possible: an alternative explanation for 
existence that is empirically testable in a controlled 
environment. Make no mistake; I *am* referring to an 
alternative to Darwin's theory, as well as an alternative 
to the assumption of the random, big bang universe.

Why do I believe these alternative explanations are 
possible? Because I'm working on them.

I'm a crazy nut?

We'll see.

Of course, there is the odd aspect of human 
stubbornness that God Himself could come to earth, get 
more TV coverage than the Superbowl, eliminate disease 
and pollution, perform a whole host of other miracles... 
and there would still be people insisting that it was all 
attributable to "natural," randomly occurring 
phenomena. Such is the considerable depth of the Cain 
and Abel effect I mentioned at the beginning of this 
essay.