The First Challenge to Darwin, the Preamble to Intelligent Design

On this episode of ID the Future, Casey Luskin interviews historian Michael Flannery for the final installment of this series on Alfred Russell Wallace and Flannery's new book, Alfred Russel Wallace's Theory of Intelligent Evolution: How Wallace's World of Life Challenged Darwinism.

What was Wallace's theory of intelligent evolution, which Flannery describes as a preamble to intelligent design?

It should strike both ID proponents and critics alike as significant that first intelligent design challenge to Darwinism came in the form of intelligent evolution from the very man who is credited with the co-discovery of natural selection, and he issued this challenge on the basis of the limitations of the principle of utility.

Flannery's research on Alfred Russell Wallace illustrates how this debate is not evolution vs. creation, but Darwinism versus design.

Michael Flannery is Professor and Associate Director for Historical Collections at the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has previously published on Alfred Russel Wallace in Forbes Magazine online, and his book is published by Erasmus Press.

Click on the links below if you missed the first installments of this series:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three