The Essence of Darwinism and the Basis of Modern Orthodoxy 119
We can infer, Paley often states, that God exists from innumerable aspects of
nature. But if we wish to know any more about the creator—his nature, his
attributes, his intentions—we must study the excellence of adaptation via the
"argument from design." Paley writes (1803, p. 60): "When we are enquiring
simply after the existence of an intelligent Creator, imperfection, inaccuracy,
liability to disorder, occasional irregularities, may subsist, in a considerable degree,
without inducing any doubt into the question."
On the other hand, adaptation in the fashioning of contrivances for definite
ends reveals God's nature. Paley invokes this theme as a litany in developing his
initial parable of the watch and watchmaker. He cites other possible explanations
for the origin of the watch, and then intones, after each: "Contrivance is still
unaccounted for. We still want a contriver" ("want," that is, in the old sense of
"lack," not the modern "desire"—p. 13). "Contrivance must have had a contriver,
design, a designer" (p. 14). Later, he tells us explicitly that nature can testify to
God's character and goodness only by the phenomenon of adaptation (pp. 42 - 43):
"It is only by the display of contrivance, that the existence, the agency, the wisdom
of the Deity, could be testified to his rational creatures. This is the scale by which
we ascend to all the knowledge of our Creator which we possess, so far as it
depends upon the phenomena, or the works of nature ... It is in the construction of
instruments, in the choice and adaptation of means, that a creative intelligence is
seen. It is this which constitutes the order and the beauty of the universe."
I had never read Natural Theology straight through before pursuing my
research for this book. In so doing, I was struck by the correspondences between
Paley's and Darwin's structure of argument (though Darwin, of course, inverts the
explanation). Darwin did not exaggerate when stating to Lubbock that he had
virtually committed Paley to memory. The style of Darwin's arguments, his choice
of examples, even his rhythms and words, must often reflect (perhaps
unconsciously) his memory of Paley. Consider just a few examples of this crucial
linkage:
- Paley, like Darwin, relies upon comparison and extrapolation from artificial
to natural. Darwin moves from artificial to natural selection, Paley from human to
animal machines. Both rely on the central argument that a common mechanism
works much more powerfully in nature. Paley's words recall Darwin's argument
that natural selection, working on all parts for so much time, must trump artificial
selection, which only affects the few features we choose to emphasize in the short
duration of human history. "For every indication of contrivance, every
manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature;
with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater and more, and that in a
degree which exceeds all computation" (1803, p. 19). - Both men invoke the same examples. Paley compares the eye and
telescope; Darwin lauds the eye as the finest example of complex natural design,
and then presents an evolutionary explanation. Paley cites the swimbladder as an
independent device created for life in water; Darwin illustrates homology with the
tetrapod lung and proposes an evolutionary passage.