Intelligent Design and the "Bad Metaphor" Objection
It has become commonplace to speak of proteins as sophisticated nanomachines, cells as miniature factories, and genomes as containing information in the form of code. Given that in our experience all other instances of machines, factories, and codes involve intelligent agency in their production, su...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Philosophia Christi
Year: 2024, Volume: 26, Issue: 1, Pages: 91-113 |
| IxTheo Classification: | NBE Anthropology NCJ Ethics of science |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | It has become commonplace to speak of proteins as sophisticated nanomachines, cells as miniature factories, and genomes as containing information in the form of code. Given that in our experience all other instances of machines, factories, and codes involve intelligent agency in their production, such descriptions, taken literally, suggest that the structures and operations of living things are best explained in terms of intelligent design. Not everyone agrees, however, that these descriptions should be taken literally. In this article, I evaluate arguments for taking these descriptions metaphorically rather than literally and find them wanting. It will not do, therefore, to reject hypotheses of intelligent design on the grounds that we can only speak metaphorically of proteins as machines, cells as factories, and genomes as containing code. |
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| ISSN: | 2640-2580 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Philosophia Christi
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5840/pc20242616 |