06.26.09
Wallace’s dissent on Darwinism, ID?
How Evolution’s Co-Discoverer Discovered Intelligent Design, Part I
To judge from previews, the new Darwin biographical movie Creation will emphasize the challenge Darwinian theory posed from the beginning to religious belief. Yet the life of evolution’s co-discoverer, Alfred Russel Wallace, suggests that properly understood, and that’s a major proviso, evolution needn’t upset faith at all. On the contrary, Wallace reasoned from what he knew about life’s history to a belief that an “Overruling Intelligence” guided life’s development, much as intelligent design (ID) does today. Science historian Michael A. Flannery calls Wallace’s evolutionary thinking a “preamble” to ID.
Nothing that Wallace proposed is the same as what we are getting from the current ID movement.
It is impossible and dangerous to embrace ID in the current environment.
We cannot equate Wallace’s thinking with that of the Discovery/ID group.