The Fifth of the Five Ways

[Belacqua]

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The 'Origin of Species' was about biological evolution - I'm not proposing that Aquinas was attempting to refute a theory which did not exist in his lifetime.

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But I don't know how anyone can read that passage and not infer that Aquinas was positing that the universe was intelligently designed...

Boru

Thomas would have considered creation designed on a cosmic scale, sure. And that would mean that he considered physical reality a product of intelligence. But the text of the 5W doesn't commit him to any particular theory of natural science, biological or otherwise. As to whether Thomism is compatible with evolution by natural selection, I see no obvious conflict. I used to have a good academic paper on the subject, but cannot seem to locate it at the moment.

As I understand it, the Fifth Way includes things like the laws of nature -- physics and chemistry -- for which talk of natural selection is irrelevant. 

But natural selection among living things is compatible with it.