Dumb Evolution or a Intelligence guided process?

At a recent Church group, we got talking about some of the great research that has come out of the Discovery Institute and great blogs like OE.com. One of my fellows mentioned an idea that is growing in popularity: Guided evolution.

Now I personally do not know what to make of this concept, but here it is in a nutshell: Proponents of guided evolution argue that life owes it's diversity to a process guided by a designing intelligence, and that life is indeed intelligently designed. Furthermore they state that this intelligence has the ability to "control" and create new life-forms by influencing the quantum processes that occur when germ-line cells divide and combine.

Essentially they differ with Darwinists on a number of basic issues:

Darwinists argue that life is purposeless and devoid of meaning, wheras Intelligent Evolution proponents believe that we are all the product of a guiding intelligence.

Darwinists state that evolution is always a dumb natural process, whereas proponents of intelligent evolution believe that sometimes this process can be guided intelligently, and this specifically is the kind of evolution which gives rise to species selection.

Let me give you a comparison: Darwinists often state that which life-forms live (and reproduce) and which die without reproducing is a random affiar. Proponents of intelligent evolution believe that this might be part of the Intelligent Agent's design-process - allowing the organisms to live that most fit HIS purpose, and then modifying each successive generation subtly in order to achieve the organisms that meet his design goals.

Let me know what you think?

Some students may find these conversations interesting:

http://www.uncommondescent.com/archives/2075

http://www.uncommondescent.com/archives/2061

Intelligent design is a good explanation for a number of biochemical systems, but I should insert a word of caution. Intelligent design theory has to be seen in context: it does not try to explain everything. We live in a complex world where lots of different things can happen. When deciding how various rocks came to be shaped the way they are a geologist might consider a whole range of factors: rain, wind, the movement of glaciers, the activity of moss and lichens, volcanic action, nuclear explosions, asteroid impact, or the hand of a sculptor. The shape of one rock might have been determined primarily by one mechanism, the shape of another rock by another mechanism.

Similarly, evolutionary biologists have recognized that a number of factors might have affected the development of life: common descent, natural selection, migration, population size, founder effects (effects that may be due to the limited number of organisms that begin a new species), genetic drift (spread of “neutral,” nonselective mutations), gene flow (the incorporation of genes into a population from a separate population), linkage (occurrence of two genes on the same chromosome), and much more. The fact that some biochemical systems were designed by an intelligent agent does not mean that any of the other factors are not operative, common, or important.–Dr. Behe

Not quite. The difference is that Theistic Evolutionists often believe 1) that the universe is entirely deterministic and that since God set the initial laws in place a plan has unfolded or 2) God purposely designed the laws governing the universe in such a fashion that evolution was inevitable, although still semi-random, and then at some point humans were infused with a spirit. Whereas with Intelligent Evolution or Guided Evolution there can be scenarios such as front-loading, the tinkering God, etc.