In A Darwinian World, What Chance For Design?

Swiss anthropologist Jeremy Narby counts himself among the relatively thin ranks of scientists willing to publicly announce their conviction that nature is "minded," that an intelligence lies behind the development of life. Such a position is heresy to the prevailing scientific view of naturalism, which holds that nature is self-sufficient and the result of undirected processes. These two differing viewpoints usually are framed in the context of a debate between theology and science--creationism vs. Darwinism--but lately, Narby and others are claiming that the argument can be staged on secular grounds. They say scientific methods can be developed to empirically test the theory that there is intelligence directing nature. Illustrations: Stefan Gutermuth, from The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1998) Narby works for Nouvelle Planete, a nonprofit Swiss aid organization that promotes community development in Third World countries. In 1984, he began two years of field work with Peruvian Indians to gain his doctorate from Stanford University. This experience led him into studies of shamanism and of ethnobotany and finally, into extensive readings in molecular biology. A book resulted, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Life (New York, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1998). Originally published in French, it will be released in English this month. "So far, the smallest known bacterial genome [Mycoplasma genitalium] contains 580,000 DNA letters. This is an enormous amount of information, comparable to the contents of a small telephone directory," he writes in his book. "How can a small telephone directory of information emerge from random processes?" Any scientist who accepts "design" as the answer to such questions must confront the Darwinian mechanism of natural selection working on random variation, a fundamental tenet of modern science. Nor can the dissenting scientist fairly expect to avoid the "creationist" tag that accompanies such a stance. In 1994, John Maddox, then editor of Nature, wrote in an editorial, "Many professional scientists are deeply religious, often justifying their beliefs on the grounds that 'science cannot know everything.'" He added, "The idea that religion may be a way of organizing one's appraisal of one's place in the world is not very different from what astrologers tell their clients. In other words, it may not be long before the practice of religion must be regarded as anti-science"(J. Maddox, Nature, 386:185, 1994). Although Narby's book gives no indication of his religious beliefs, he describes himself as agnostic. "I'm not talking about some kind of superhuman intelligence," he says of the influence he perceives on nature. "In fact, it could even be an inferior one--from the Latin inferus, 'situated beneath.'" He would like to see design theory and Darwinism coexist in contemporary scientific methodology. "Only fools throw out all their tools except the best one." Michael Behe, an associate professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., says, "If the data indicate there is an intelligence behind nature, then it's good science to follow that data. Whether we can discern what intelligence that is, is another question." Behe posited the theory of nature's "intelligent design" in his book, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (New York, Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 1996). Behe stops short of adhering to creationism, although he is a professed Catholic. In his book, he notes the impossibility of testing the existence of an intelligent designer, but he claims that science can observe the effects of design on life. English theologian and philosopher William Paley made a similar argument at the beginning of the 19th century. He suggested that if a watch were found by someone who didn't know what it was, the finder could deduce that the watch was the product of intelligence by observing that it adapts its means (the moving hands) to an end (depicting a day's course). Scientists generally discarded the design-in-nature theory more than a century ago, and Behe's book received a scathing review in Nature that dismissed his arguments as "a recycled version of the creationist notion that 'complex design' implies an intelligent designer" (J.A. Coyne, Nature, 83:227-8, 1996). Discovery Institute 1402 Third Ave., Suite 400 Seattle, Wash. 98101 (206) 292-0401 Fax: (206) 682-5320 http://www.discovery.org Jeremy Narby will be launching his book in San Francisco and Los Angeles April 22-24. For details, contact Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc., 200 Madison Ave. New York, N.Y. 10016; (212) 951-8400. "We've got a criterion now for testing the theory which is empirically grounded," says William A. Dembski, a Dallas-based research fellow of Discovery Institute, a public policy think tank headquartered in Seattle. According to its Web site, the institute promotes principles and practices that include "a belief in God-given reason and the permanency of human nature." Behe is listed among the institute's fellows. Dembski, a philosopher, mathematician, and theologian, has written The Design Inference, a monograph to be published in the fall by Cambridge University Press. In it, he characterizes intelligent design as a theory of information that confers function on complex systems. Information thus constitutes a fundamental entity in the biophysical universe, on a par with energy. It is this functional information that can be reliably detected and measured as a proper object for scientific investigation, he believes. In his mathematical formulation, to eliminate chance and infer design as a causal force in a biological system, complexity and structure must first be present. The breakthrough in Dembski's work, he says, was to find a "perfectly general way to eliminate chance." In statistics, a hypothesis is set in advance; and if results then fall within a prescribed rejection region, randomness can be eliminated. Dembski's challenge was to make his mathematical formulation robust enough to contain already-existing patterns of life. This required a key, as in cryptography. He found the key in specificity, which, when combined with complexity in a theory of probability, can discern information. To illustrate, Dembski notes that if an arrow is shot at a wall, wherever the arrow strikes will be a highly improbable spot. If a circle is then painted around the arrow, no conclusion can be inferred. However, if a target is fixed on the wall and the arrow strikes the bull's eye, an inference of intelligent causation can be drawn. The chance that the arrow hit that point randomly "can become an exercise in special pleading," he says. Methods such as his already have been developed to detect intelligent causation in forensic science, artificial intelligence, cryptography, archaeology, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, he adds. In each case, the method is aimed at uncovering information. His method, which he says is falsifiable, is being tested at the protein level by a molecular biologist in England, who Dembski explains wants to remain unnamed because of the political pressures in scientific circles of doing such work. Dembski also is editing Mere Creation: Science, Faith and Intelligent Design, a volume of essays to be published this year by InterVarsity Press, a Downer's Grove, Ill.-based Christian publisher. He thinks it is possible to take a secular view of design "if you're going to insist on being agnostic," but the introduction he wrote to the book is frankly Christian. "I tried to refocus the Christian community's energy, so instead of worrying about the age of the Earth or the nature of God's intervention, they [Christians] focus on naturalism--which is the utter negation of creation--and focus on design." Narby has a theory he would like to see tested empirically. He says the Peruvian shamans with whom he worked maintained that visions they had while under the influence of hallucinogens derived from a native plant were the source of their information about the medicinal properties of flora. His book offers the hypothesis that shamans can enter into a "defocalized" state while hallucinating and can gain access to information related to DNA, which they call "animate essences" or "spirits." Narby thinks his theory can be tested by posing a question to a shaman for which the answer has not yet been found by science. If the shaman produces an answer, that information can then be empirically verified or disproven. Rick J. Strassman, now a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia School of Medicine, led a team that researched hallucinogens from 1984 to 1995, when he was an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Medicine. He thinks Narby's hypothesis that Peruvian shamans "see" information not normally accessible to the senses could be rather easily tested. The protocol would involve administering a placebo or a drug, recording the hallucinations by use of hand drawings or computer graphic iterations, then comparing the images to those of material to which the hallucinations are believed to correspond. Narby gathered drawings by traditional healers from many contemporary cultures worldwide and throughout the centuries. The images they create frequently depict entwined serpents, vines, ropes, or ladders, many of which bear similarities to the double helix of DNA. Strassman's team at UNM conducted the first clinical trial of a hallucinogen since enactment of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (R.J. Strassman, C.R. Qualls, Archives of General Psychiatry, 51:85-97, 1994; R.J. Strassman et al., Archives of General Psychiatry, 51:98-108, 1994). The drug they studied, dimeythyltryptamine (DMT), is the active ingredient in the Psychotria viridis bush used by shamans of the Peruvian Amazon. "Many people have referred to the 'filtering' function of the brain, in blocking and reducing the influx of perceptual data coming in through the sense organs, so as to organize consciousness in such a way as to produce a predictable, consensually defined version of reality," he notes. "Perhaps hallucinogens alter the perceptual 'tuning' of the brain so as to allow us to 'see' things that otherwise aren't available to 'sight.' The change in tuning or receiving characteristics would vary with the stimulus [drugs, or other techniques of altering consciousness], and what is 'seen' would vary depending upon those new receiving characteristics." Tom Carlson, director of ethnobiomedical field research for San Francisco-based Shaman Pharmaceuticals Inc., has extensive experience in gathering information about the medicinal properties of plants from traditional healers in African, South American, and Asian countries. Shaman Pharmaceuticals sends interdisciplinary scientific teams, headed by physicians and ethnobotanists, into the field to gather such information. "When working with traditional healers, it's very important to appreciate the fact that, particularly in the tropics, they are people who recognize their botanical species," he comments. "They know the ecology of plants, when they flower and fruit, what birds come to them, and their diseases. So they essentially are multidisciplinary scientists wrapped up in one person." But Carlson eschews attempts to explain how such information was gathered. Instead, he focuses on identification of signs, symptoms, and natural histories of diseases and of the plants used to treat them. "You generate a hypothesis based on ethnobiological information and bring it into the lab to test it," he says. "Basically, I have tremendous respect for these people and their traditions, and I respect how they have gained this knowledge. I'm not saying I understand it, but I respect it." Strassman comments, "The philosopher of religion Huston Smith said something that has stuck in my mind. 'That which is smaller cannot comprehend that which is greater.' Meaning, at least in my mind, that we ought to keep an open mind regarding things we aren't sure about, especially when it comes to nature and biology."

In A Darwinian World, What Chance For Design?

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