Evolution, 4th Edition

Failures of the argument from design

Since God cannot be known directly, theologians such as Thomas Aquinas have

long attempted to infer His characteristics from His works. Theologians have

argued, for instance, that order in the universe, such as the predictable move-

ment of celestial bodies, implies that God must be orderly and rational, and that

He creates according to a plan. From the observation that organisms have charac-

teristics that serve their survival, it could similarly be inferred that God is a ratio-

nal, intelligent designer who, furthermore, is beneficent, having equipped living

things for all their needs. Such a beneficent God would not create an imperfect

Futuyma Kirkpatrick Evolution, 4e

Sinauer Associates

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Evolution4e_22.02.ai Date 12-19-2016

Escherichia

coli

(bacterium)

Saccharomyces

cerevisiae (yeast)

Caenorhabditis

elegans

(nematode)

Drosophila

melanogaster

(fruit y)

Brachydanio

rerio

(zebrash)

Mus musculus

(mouse)

Rattus

norvegicus (rat)

Pan troglodytes

(chimpanzee) Human

Primates

Mammals

Vertebrates

Multicellularity

Eukaryotic cells

Prokaryote

ancestor

FIGURE 22.2 Common ancestry is the only explanation for why the

U.S. National Institutes of Health should support basic biological

research on organisms ranging from bacteria to chimpanzees. This

support is based on the supposition that such research will contrib-

ute to understanding human health and disease. Research on these

model organisms has provided major discoveries relevant to human

biology and health.

Futuyma Kirkpatrick Evolution, 4e

Sinauer Associates

Troutt Visual Services

Evolution4e_22.03.ai Date 12-19-2016

H-A3

H-A11

C-A108

C-A126

H-A24

H-B13

C-B1

H-B44

C-B2

H-B27

MHC

locus A

MHC

locus B

0.08 0.06 0.04

Branch length

0.02 0

FIGURE 22.3 Due to incomplete lineage sorting (see Chapter

16), a polymorphism may be inherited by two or more species

from their common ancestor, and certain haplotypes in each

species may be most closely related to haplotypes in the other

species. This gene tree shows the relationships among six alleles

in humans and four alleles in chimpanzees at the major histo-

compatibility (MHC) loci A and B. Both species have loci A and

B, which form monophyletic clusters, indicating that the two loci

arose by gene duplication before speciation gave rise to the

human and chimpanzee lineages. At both loci, each chimpanzee

allele is more closely related (and has a more similar nucleotide

sequence) to a human allele than to other chimpanzee alleles.

Thus polymorphism at each locus in the common ancestor has

been carried over into both descendant species. (After [78].)

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