Claim CI130:

Design is indicated by functional integration, which is multiple parts working together to produce a particular function or end.

Source:

Response:

1. Functional integration can be produced naturally. Parts come together all the time and, with the addition of energy, act on each other. It is inevitable that sometimes such workings will create an end that someone or something considers functional. An example of such functional integration occurring naturally is climate (which has even been proposed as evidence of intelligent design; Morton 2001). Climate is produced by the interactions of terrain, trade winds, bodies of water, and latitude. These can occur arbitrarily, but they are bound to produce some kind of functional climate.
   
   
2. Functional integration is what we would expect from evolution. Evolution requires units that reproduce. "Units" implies at least some amount of integration, and reproduction is a function. (And natural selection will favor innumerable other functions that help with survival and reproduction.)
   
   
3. Biological systems often include imperfections and jury-rigging that argue against intelligent planning of their integration. For example:
   • DNA sometimes includes a "wrong" sequence that, if not edited after the DNA is transcribed, would be fatal. For example, a gene involved in mouse neurons contains a codon specifying glutamine. In normal mice, an enzyme edits the RNA that is transcribed from the DNA, so the codon will specify arginine. Mice die if this editing enzyme is disabled. But mice that are genetically engineered with DNA for arginine in the first place are healthy even without the editing enzyme (Keegan et al. 2000).
   • In men, the urethra passes through the prostate gland. When the prostate gets infected and swells, as it is prone to do, it causes problems not only with reproduction but also with the excretory system (Colby et al. 1993).
   • Although baleen whales are toothless as adults, their fetuses grow teeth that are resorbed as they mature (Colby et al. 1993).
   Additional example are plentiful (Behrman et al. 2004; Colby et al. 1993).
   
   
4. Functional integration is not a necessary part of design. It does not exist in simple designs without multiple parts, for example. Since evolution always produces functional integration but design does not, functional integration is evidence more for evolution than for design.

Links:

Colby, Chris et al., 1993. Evidence for jury-rigged design in nature. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/jury-rigged.html

References:

Further Reading:

Behrman, Edward J., George A. Marzluf and Ronald Bentley, 2004. Evidence from biochemical pathways in favor of unfinished evolution rather than intelligent design. Journal of Chemical Education 81(7): 1051-1052.

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