Evolution’s Brute Spontaneity

As Michael Ruse and others have pointed out the language evolutionists use can be telling, but what is not discussed is that the language evolutionists do not use is also telling. Anyone familiar with the evolution genre cannot help but notice the curious use of design language. Teleology abounds as natural selection is described as “solving” this or that “problem.” As Ernst Mayr pointed out in Toward a New Philosophy of Biology, “The use of terms like purposive or goal-directed seemed to imply the transfer of human qualities, such as intent, purpose, planning, deliberation, or consciousness, to organic structures and to subhuman forms of life.” Of course for Ruse, Mayr and the evolutionists these are merely interesting asides. The persistence of teleological language in the literature is nothing more than a commentary on how we think and do science. Perhaps it reveals a certain laziness of thought, or perhaps it is a useful way of problem solving, but either way it is nothing more than a fiction. Sure the world looks designed, but we all know that such primitive teleological thinking has long since been exposed and rejected. After all, evolution is a fact.

This brings us to that language that evolutionists do not use. They explain that evolution is a fact, and they give long, flowery descriptions of this process. Organic chemicals coalesced in warm little ponds or along deep sea concentration gradients. Single celled organisms emerged and natural selection proceeded to act on naturally occurring biological variation. The drama unfolded as volcanoes, lightning and comets created just the right mix. Neutral and positive mutations produced innovative solutions to the challenges of the evolving biosphere, resulting in common ancestors and clades. Evolutionists display beautiful, detailed murals depicting this epic history.

But what is not said is that all of this just happened to occur, all on its own. In short, the world arose spontaneously. While evolutionists readily adopt design and teleological language, they eschew accurate, objective descriptions of what their theory actually claims. Evolutionists insist it is a fact that the world arose spontaneously, but they avoid such stark terms. They avoid this because such clarity reveals the absurdity of evolutionary thought.

Spontaneous action is an important concept in science. Everything from thunderstorms and snowflakes to proteins arise spontaneously. Indeed evolutionists often appeal to this phenomena as support. Snowflakes and proteins arise spontaneously, so why not everything else? As I have pointed out this argument fails badly, and in fact merely points out yet more problems for evolution.

But yet another fundamental problem for evolutionists is that the spontaneous formation of things like thunderstorms, snowflakes and proteins occurs within a context. Yes proteins fold spontaneously, but only in the right type of aqueous solution. Even more important, you need an unfolded protein to begin with. That is, you need hundreds of amino acids to be covalently bonded, one to the next, by peptide bonds. And furthermore, it must not be just any arbitrary sequence of amino acids, but from a special class of sequences which, yes, spontaneously folds.

So the right type of amino acid sequence needs to be specified, those amino acids need to be held together by peptide bonds, and the resulting unfolded chain needs to be placed into the right kind of aqueous solution. Then, yes, it will fold spontaneously.

The same logic applies to thunderstorms, snowflakes and everything else. There is a context within which these things spontaneously form, and the context is crucial. These things don’t just happen spontaneously without the proper context. And so whenever we speak of spontaneous action in science, it is understood that there is an implied context. Molecules A and B spontaneously bond to form molecule AB, but it is understood that molecules A and B are mixed together in the same test tube, at an appropriate temperature, concentration, and so forth.

So in science spontaneous action is not action that is free of context. There is no such thing, we might say, as brute spontaneity. Unless, that is, you are an evolutionist. Here we have yet another absurdity of evolutionary theory. You won’t find this in their beautiful murals or flowery textbook descriptions, but evolutionary thought is based on context-free, brute spontaneity.

Evolutionists appeal to changing allele frequencies, genetic mutations and other means of biological variation as their sources of innovation. And while such mechanisms show little evidence of being capable of designing nature’s incredible array of species, even if they could they would rely on the context of molecular biology—a context which according to evolution arose via, yes, evolution.

But it does not stop here. Molecular biology must have evolved within a context. A terrestrial environment, providing the right mix must have led to the origin of molecular biology, cellular life and the underlying biochemistry.

And again, the terrestrial environment must have evolved within a context of an early earth. And the earth must have evolved within a context of an evolving solar system. And the solar system evolved from a cloud of gas. And the gas evolved from, well, you get the idea.

Ultimately evolution has no starting point except for nothing. For evolutionists there can be no Prime Mover. Everything we see must have arisen from nothing. And while one might, with sufficient wine or song, dream of such unlikely possibilities, evolutionists insist that all of this is a scientific fact that must be acknowledged by all rational parties. Evolution’s absurdity is exceeded only by its confidence.

But in their insistence, evolutionists will never use such clarity. Like the cult that hides its true beliefs to newcomers, evolution covers over its absurdities with beautiful murals and descriptions. They scoff when they hear their theory accurately described. For that is the language that evolutionists do not use.

Religion drives science, and it matters.