I have been pondering whether to continue this series with more posts. But I think I’ll end it here for now. I will later have some independent posts that are related.
Summary
One of the arguments that we repeatedly see from creationists, is that there is something missing from a purely mechanistic view of the world, and that is where they want to put their deity or intelligent designer. What they see missing, is an explanation of an apparent purpose.
Part of that missing purpose is a backward construct from their theology, and their wish that they (or humankind) be a product of purpose. I cannot find any basis for that. However, there does seem to be a basis for seeing apparently purposeful behavior in biological systems. And that’s what I have been discussing.
My main emphasis has been to show that there is an adequate natural account for this apparently purposeful behavior, so there is no need to call on theology for a pseudo-explanation.
Index
For ease of future reference, here’s an index to the posts in this series:
- Purpose (1) – Introduction: an introductory post;
- Purpose (2) – Teleological explanation: distinguishing between mechanistic explanations and purpose-based explanations;
- Purpose (3) – measurement and purpose: relating purpose to the process of measuring and the use of measurements;
- Purpose (4) – chaos: a discussion of why chaotic behavior seems to crop up in the examples used;
- Purpose (5) – nature and purpose: suggesting a basis for apparently purposeful behavior in biological systems;
- Purpose (6) – background: a discussion of how I came to be thinking about purpose;
- Purpose (7) – summary and index: this summary and index post.
The Heretical Philosopher 