Does Reason have Anything to do with Evolution?

Does Reason have Anything to do with Evolution?

The true naturalist, as Darwin, has got to say no to this question.  They’re closed system of naturalism says that reason or intelligent design can have nothing to do with evolution.  For if they were to say yes, it would allow the camel to get his noise in the tent.  However, this leads to another question, if reason or intelligence really has nothing to do with evolution.  How could evolution give birth to reason?[1]  What about when reason gets into the  evolution process by the practice of select breeding?  So, we could say that reason is involved in some evolution because human intelligence is directing the evolution of some species through selective breeding.  What about when scientists messing with genes and manipulating them, could you call that intelligent design?  Reason, directing or influenced evolution.

If human reason can tinker with genes and evolution why is it so far-fetched that super reason can be tinkering with it, designing it and directing it to achieve his goals?  There is only one reason for denying this hypothesis, that being a predisposition of science toward materialism and atheism.  This predisposition, being a built in bias in science toward metaphysics, came out of its attempt to distinguish itself from philosophy.

Richard Lewontin (evolutionary geneticist), hints at this predisposition and bias when he says “[The public] take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism.” [2]

“So the moral of the story told by a historian of science is at once simple and endlessly complex. Knowledge without prejudice is not possible and neither is social life. Prejudice can be selectively managed and disciplined but it cannot be eliminated. We have to pick out those prejudices that we find intolerable and oppose them as vigorously as we can with whatever resources we can. But we are going to have to do so without a rational master”[3]

It does seem from the above the following things, (1) many in the scientific community have a presupposition bias towards intelligent design in evolution. (2) Intelligent design has been practiced in the barnyard and in the laboratory for centuries. (3) The hypothesis that the processes of evolution or at least aspects of it are controlled by a super intelligence is not contrary to observation and true science. Intelligence has been observed influencing evolution. (4) Many arguments against intelligent design is grounded more in materialistic philosophy than authentic science.

[1] They use reason to explain how evolution created reason and reason to explain evolution. Is this not based on the presupposition that reason can be trusted, which in turn is based on the supposition that a mindless process could create a rational process. Can these suppositions be supported scientifically? Evolutionist will say that nature gave birth to reason through the process of natural selection. However, natural selection presupposes that there is something to select from. If there was no reason in nature how could it be selected by natural selection?

[2] “Billions and Billions of Demons,” page 31 quoted in Never Pure by Shapin, Steven

[3] Shapin, Steven (2010-07-24). Never Pure (p.46, 56). Johns Hopkins University Press. Kindle Edition.