Natural Processes as the Complete Explanation

Natural processes have enormous explanatory power. Physics describes the behavior of matter and energy. Chemistry explains how molecules interact. Evolutionary mechanisms can modify populations, produce adaptations, duplicate and alter genes, and generate biological novelty.

From this perspective, features that appear designed need not actually have been designed. Order can arise through physical processes, and biological complexity can accumulate through variation and selection over long periods of time.

The investigations in this series have documented many real examples of natural processes producing change. Experimental evolution demonstrates adaptation and innovation. Gene duplication, regulatory change, mutation, selection, and other mechanisms contribute to biological diversity.

Any explanation of life must take these demonstrated capabilities seriously.

Showing that natural processes can produce some forms of order or biological change does not by itself establish that they provide a complete explanation for every feature examined in this series.

Questions remain concerning cosmic fine-tuning, the origin of the first living system, biological information, integrated molecular systems, and the ultimate origin of the processes themselves.

How much of the total evidence can presently be explained by demonstrated natural mechanisms, and where must historical reconstruction or proposed mechanisms extend beyond what has been directly observed?