Universal Darwinism and
Biology
Charles Darwin was able to explain design
in the biological world as a result of a simple repetitive process: the
Darwinian Algorithm. In the over hundred and forty years since he
proposed this explanation it has continuously gain explanatory power and
is now considered the central organizing principal in the field of
biology.
In
1953 the structure of DNA was revealed by Watson and Crick. DNA
encompasses the molecular framework for Darwinian reproduction and
heredity. DNA is a replicator and is at the seat of the Darwinian
algorithm, the essence of evolutionary theory. It is DNA that is at the
heart of reproduction, it is the molecular form in which the information
of heredity is communicated and it provides a mechanism for the
variation in characteristics essential to the Darwinian algorithm.
Since its discovery study of its properties and functionality has
probably been the main research area of Biology. Throughout the
resulting rapid accumulation of scientific knowledge concerning genetics
and evolutionary history, no evidence has posed a serious challenge to
Darwin’s theory. Indeed, the theory is successfully used day in and day
out to explain evidence found by researchers.
Today Darwin’s
legacy is very much with us and the theory of evolution is integrated
into many people’s world view. Essential to the environmental movement
is the understanding that all life is related and that we are greatly
dependent on this web of living things. There are no longer any laws in
western democracies forbidding the teaching of evolution. In America the
best the religious fundamentalist can manage is to allow the teaching of
‘Creation Science’ along with evolution in some states.
Non-fundamentalist Christian religions have given up their attacks on
Darwinian Theory. Many are happy to leave explanations of the physical
world completely to science. Even the Pope has accepted evolution as
fact. One can say that the Argument from Design concerning the creation
of the biological world has been thoroughly refuted and even most of the
religious establishment has accepted this outcome.
Following in
Darwin’s tradition many of the foremost biologists of the age such as
Richard Dawkins and
Stephen J. Gould continue to publish best sellers describing the
evolutionary process. One of Dawkin’s books,
The
Selfish Gene, contained an
important addition to the theory of evolution. It posited the existence
of the ‘meme’ a second replicators functioning according to the
Darwinian algorithm. Unlike genetics that operates in the biological
realm, memes operate in the cultural realm. A substantial body of
scientific work, described in previous chapters, is now assembled
providing evidence that the evolution of culture is due to this
replicator.
