Michael Denton on the Primal Patterns That Govern Living Systems

On this classic ID The Future out of the vault, biochemist Dr. Michael Denton discusses the implications of recurring animal body plans, arguing that they are predetermined types that point away from purely mechanistic processes. He observes that structures like the insect body plan were fixed long ago and haven't changed. He argues they are better understood as instances of predetermined type rather than collections of historical adaptations. This predetermination, he suggests, is the product of laws of form, which he finds inexplicable on a mechanistic view of nature.

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