According to George V. Coyne: "In the third paragraph of his op-ed article in the NY Times, 7 July 2005, Cardinal Schoenborn mistakenly defines neo-Darwinian evolution as 'an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection' and then condemns it. If you arbitrarily define something in a condemning way and then condemn it, you make dialogue pretty difficult." [From circulated e-mail.]
Okay. Well, let's ask some questions of Mr. Coyne. Is he saying that evolution is actually guided and planned? What evolutionary mechanisms carry out this extraordinary task? What is it, exactly, in the Cardinal's definition that is incorrect? And what percentage of evolutionary biologists would disagree with the Cardinal's definition?
The fact of the matter is that unless there is an intelligent agent behind the origin and evolution of life it must perforce be unguided, unplanned and purposeless. There is nothing in the mechanisms of neo-Darwinian evolution that can foresee the future, that causes them to work toward some goal, or that follows some plan. Life is a product of fortuitous serendipity, according to the Darwinians, and for Coyne to complain because the Cardinal correctly identifies this as their position is rather odd.
Indeed, we wonder if Coyne complained when Elie Weisel drafted a letter signed by 38 Nobel Prize winners to protest attempts to insert ID into public schools in Kansas. In the letter the signatories state that "evolution is understood to be the result of an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection." Was Mr. Coyne distressed over the difficulties the definition employed by these worthies posed for dialogue? We doubt it.
The reason Mr. Coyne objects to identifying this truth about Darwinian evolution, of course, is that he recognizes that this description removes evolution from the field of empirical science and places it squarely in the realm of metaphysics. As such, it's theoretical status is identical to that of intelligent design, and if this description, the description most biologists use for evolution, is allowed to be taught in public school classrooms, there can be no justification for excluding ID.