(December 1, 2020 at 11:05 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: I'm not sure I understand the question, what's teleological about the evolutionary connection to dna?
It has a purpose, and can be explained by or by reference to that purpose. Teleology is an explanation for a thing by the purpose it serves rather than the cause by which it may arise. A natural teleology explains things by the natural purpose they serve - and design is no exception.
Nor, for that matter, are our own designs. They're conceptually and qualitatively equivalent. We're not designing stuff, ourselves, some non natural non biological way. If we can do teleology, that's evolutionary biology doing teleology. The connection to ourselves is explicit. Evolutionary biology conferred an ability to us that the processes which create rocks simply don't confer to them. Or, at least..not that we know of..yet. Always crossing my fingers that the first alien who pops in and asks to see our leader seems, for all the world, like a lifeless rock to us.
I'm talking about the clues left in DNA that demonstrate common ancestry between various species, such as specific retrovirus DNA in humans and apes but not in dogs, or damaged genes appearing in both species at the same location but not in other species. Or how about protein forms that perform the exact function in various species, but more closely related specie using the same form while others use a different form, for the same purpose. None of this can remotely be classified as teleological unless you drastically change the meaning of the word.
Why is it so?
~Julius Sumner Miller
~Julius Sumner Miller