[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-43023-en":3,"doc-seo-43023-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},43023,4398048949847,"Eliana","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/400002536579ef2da7f?_k=1778318612642679267",8,"Research & Report","Darwin’s Causal Argument Against Creationism","Darwin’s shifting argumentative strategy against creationism is reconstructed across his works, focusing on how his negative arguments evolved. The document contrasts the Origin’s argument from imperfection with later reliance on the argument from independence, especially as developed in The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication. It examines Darwin’s interpretations of opposing views, the role of chance, design, and natural law in his correspondence with Asa Gray, and evaluates whether probabilistic independence undermines the hypothesis of designing causes using modern causal modeling tools.","volume 22, no. 23 december 2022  \nDarwin’s Causal Argument Against Creationism  \nHayley Clatterbuck  \nUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison  \n© 2022 Hayley Clatterbuck This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.  \n\u003C[www.philosophersimprint.org/](www.philosophersimprint.org/022023/)[022023](www.philosophersimprint.org/022023/)[/](www.philosophersimprint.org/022023/)> DOI: 10.3998/phimp.930  \n1. Introduction  \nCharles Darwin famously referred to On the Origin of Species (1859) as his “one long argument” for the theory of evolution. His argument consisted of both positive evidence for his theory—for the existence of natural selection and its ability to explain the diversity of species and their curious fit to their environments—and his negative arguments against competing views. This negative component underwent significant changes across Darwin’s subsequent works, from Fertilisation of Orchids (1862) through his final reflections published in the posthumous Autobiography (1887), both in its targets and arguments. Darwin’s chief target in the Origin is the doctrine of special creation, the view that God created each species and its traits in roughly their current form, via distinct acts of creation. In later works, Darwin turns his criticism on other alternatives, including Richard Owen’s archetype theory and new theories of theistic evolution, particularly as articulated by his beloved interlocutor, Asa Gray.  \nAccordingly, Darwin’s argumentative strategy shifted as well. In the Origin, Darwin relies on arguments from imperfection, cases of rudimentary or otherwise imperfect traits that are hard to explain on the hypothesis of intelligent and benevolent design. However, Darwin vacillates between conflicting (bordering on contradictory) arguments, sometimes arguing that imperfections are evidence against God’s design and at others suggesting it is impossible to have any evidence for or against God’s design. Darwin grasped many of the limitations of his arguments in the Origin, lamenting that “I am, and shall ever remain, in a hopeless muddle”(letter to Asa Gray, November 26, 1860) .  \nIn later works, especially The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868), Darwin shifted to a different argument which seems to have dispelled his hopeless muddle. According to the argument from independence, the fact that variation is random with respect to selection shows that biological phenomena are not designed, via special creation or otherwise. He was much more confident in this argument, writing near the end of his life that “there seems to beno more design in the variability of organic beings and in the action  \nhayley clatterbuck Darwin’s Causal Argument Against Creationism  \nof natural selection, then in the course which the wind blows   I have discussed this subject at the end of my book on the Variation of Domesticated Animals and Plants, and the argument there given has never, as far as I can see, been answered”(1887, 309) .  \nHere, I will undertake a rational reconstruction ofDarwin’s evolving argumentative strategies against his creationist opponents. First, it will be important to explain Darwin’s own understanding and interpretation of his creationist targets.1 Second, given these background beliefs, why did Darwin initially pursue the argument from imperfection, and why, later in his career, did he find the argument from independence much more compelling? Lastly, I will reconstruct the argument from independence, asking whether—both by Darwin’s own lights and our own epistemic situation today—the independence of variation and selection actually serves to undermine design. If so, how?  \nI will show how the shift in Darwin’s thinking developed during his decades-long (1855–1881) correspondence with Gray, a philosophically rich dialog in which the two tackled previously confused concepts of chance, design, and natural law (Lennox 2010) . During this debate, Darwin see","cbCainP0jjeN3Gge","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainP0jjeN3Gge","pdf",762593,3,1,26,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Causal modeling\n# Argument from imperfection\n# Theistic evolution\n# Argument from independence\n## Objections and assessment","[{\"question\":\"What is Darwin’s main target in On the Origin of Species regarding creationism?\",\"answer\":\"Darwin’s chief target is special creation: the view that God creates each species and its traits in roughly their current form through distinct acts of creation.\"},{\"question\":\"Why did Darwin move from the argument from imperfection to the argument from independence?\",\"answer\":\"Later in his career, Darwin found the independence argument more compelling because variation appears random with respect to selection, suggesting biological phenomena are not designed via special creation or related hypotheses.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the document use modern causal modeling to interpret Darwin’s reasoning?\",\"answer\":\"It frames Darwin as increasingly drawing on ideas about probabilistic dependence and independence to infer the presence or absence of causal relations, contrasting this approach with a process account of causality.\"}]",1783376113,66,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"darwins-causal-argument-against-creationism","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/darwins-causal-argument-against-creationism/43023/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-20","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What 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