Alfred Russel Wallace’s Case for an “Overruling Intelligence”

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Science, Philosophy, Astronomy, Society & Culture, Life Sciences

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

2023 marks the bicentennial of the birth of Alfred Russel Wallace, co-founder with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Unlike Darwin, Wallace thought that biology, chemistry, and cosmology proclaimed clear evidence of intelligent design. With this episode of ID the Future from the vault, we celebrate the life and achievements of one of the godfathers of intelligent design. Host Michael Keas continues his conversation with historian Michael Flannery about his book Nature’s Prophet: Alfred Russel Wallace and His Evolution from Natural Selection to Natural Theology. When Wallace broke with Darwin in 1869, it was over the nature of human beings. Flannery explains how Wallace became convinced of an “overruling intelligence” in nature — a cause sufficient to explain the special attributes of human beings: their facility with mathematics, their propensity toward abstract thought, their love of dance, their appreciation of music, and more. "All of these uniquely human attributes do not have per se any survival advantage in nature," says Flannery. "So...they can't be relied upon by Darwin's own principle of utility to be things which developed via natural selection. They have to come from some other source." And while some may claim Wallace's view is just a "gap" argument, Flannery notes that it's instead a positive argument calling on a cause sufficient to explain the special attributes of human beings. This is Part 2 of a 3-part conversation.

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0:00.0	Welcome to ID the Future, a podcast about evolution and intelligent design.
0:14.1	I'm your host, Mike Keys.
0:17.0	Today we're going to continue our conversation with Mike Flannery,
0:21.4	Professor Emeritus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
0:25.1	He is a historian of science, particularly done a lot of work in the history of pharmacy,
0:30.1	but more recently has taken interest in the scientist Alfred Russell Wallace
0:35.8	who was a companion with Darwin and discovering some of the central ideas of
0:41.0	the theory of evolution. Mike has a new book called Nature's the to natural theology. And we've already discussed some interesting things about this book.
0:55.6	Its title, why it's not a biography, but it's intellectual history focusing on Wallace
1:00.8	and some of the key figures in his life and we ended up last time
1:05.4	talking about the infamous X club which Darwin's bulldog puxley was particularly
1:11.7	in control of and how there were insiders and
1:14.4	outsiders. Wallace was not one of those insiders. So moving on from there Mike
1:20.2	today let's think about why Wallace was not an insider to the X club.
1:27.0	I mean he he wrote about Darwinism even didn't he even write a book called Darwinism
1:31.8	wouldn't that make him or seem to make him an insider?
1:35.6	Yes, and that's one of the things that makes this whole journey a bit complicated.
1:41.2	You're absolutely right. Wallace did write a book called
1:44.2	Darwinism. It's a book that came out in 1889, but this is largely because in
1:50.4	Wallace's usage, Darwinism became synonymous with natural selection.
1:55.0	When Wallace was talking about Darwinism, he was pretty much focused on the mechanisms of natural selection.
2:02.0	And that's not necessarily the case. the mechanisms of natural selection.
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