Understanding the Models:

Paley’s Argument from Design

Each of the three readings that you will receive attempts to present some explanation for the existence of a puzzling biological phenomenon. Your task is to simply try to understand both the nature of the problem the author presents and the solution (or model) he offers to account for that particular problem. What makes this sometimes difficult is the fact that all three of these readings were written in the 1800s or earlier using language that, at times, is very different from your own.

It will help in your understanding to think of these readings as things to be studied, rather than as things to be just read. Making notes in the margins (including questions on things you don’t understand) and underlining key ideas in the text is encouraged and will help you contribute to the class discussion.

The questions provided below will help you as you study each of the handouts. Please answer them completely in the space below and be prepared to discuss your answers thoroughly in class.

The first reading is from a book called Natural Theology by William Paley.

1. What is the general phenomena for which Paley is offering an explanation?

2. What explanation does he offer for how that phenomena came to be?

3. What observations does Paley draw on for his argument (what is his data)?

4. Describe the analogy that is at the heart of Paley’s argument.

5. In 1996, author Michael Behe published his book, Darwin’s Black Box. In this book he promoted the idea of irreducible complexity by arguing that biological process such as the transcription and translation of DNA is too complex to have evolved and thus must be the product of an intelligent designer. Compare this argument to Paley’s, written almost 200 years earlier.

Lamarck and the Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics

This reading is from a book by Jean Baptiste de Lamarck called Zoological Philosophy. Answer the questions below and be prepared to discuss them in class.

1. Is Lamarck suggesting that organisms evolve?

2. Explain Lamarck’s mechanism for how organism adapt to their various lifestyles.

3. What is the role of environment in Lamarck’s explanation?

4. Lamarck argues that snakes no longer have legs because “long legs would have interfered with their need of crawling”. What is wrong with this statement?

5. What data does Lamarck rely on for his argument?

Darwin and Natural Selection

This reading is from a book by Charles Darwin called On the Origin of Species. Answer the questions below and be prepared to discuss them in class.

1. What is the phenomena that Darwin is trying to explain?

2. On what did he base his explanations?

3. What did Darwin propose as the origin of species?

4. What is the importance of domestic breeding in Darwin’s argument?

5. How did Darwin attempt to determine how modifications of a species are accomplished?