as the design, regularity of movement and structure, and the
various aspects of beauty which one may find in studying natural
objects. This argument from design in nature has been overruled by a
study of the evolutionary processes. Paley based his argument on the
assertion of a mind behind phenomena, the workings of which could be
seen in the forms of animal life. The theists no longer use Paley's
original arguments, but a great deal of the theistic arguments are still
based on his assumptions. From the humanistic point of view, and the
theist bases his entire arguments from design in nature from the
humanistic view, an understanding of the merciless character of organic
evolution shows clearly that the forces at work in nature are full of
waste, there are numerous plans that are futile, there is an unrelenting
preying of one form of life upon the other, and it is not always the
"higher" form that is victor; there are myriads of living organisms
coming to life only to perish before reaching an age at which they can
play their part in the perpetuation of the species; and there is a
universe of pain and misery that serves no useful purpose. The impartial
eye of science observes ugliness as well as beauty, disorder as well as
order, in nature. If there is evidence of design in a rose, there is at
least as much evidence of design in the tubercle bacillus, and the
tetanus bacillus. Whatever in nature produced the peacock produced the
itch-mite; whatever produced man produced the spirochete of syphilis. If
this earth is evolving for the better, the past is still vivid in all
its cruelty. The old and familiar argument from design and beauty in
nature is so inconsistent with the facts at hand, that most theists have
abandoned this attitude, and the retreat from this position has been
turned into a veritable rout by the steady advance of scientific
knowledge. God could by exercising His omnipotence reveal His existence
with overpowering conviction at any moment; yet, men have been searching
for centuries for just the slightest evidence of His presence.

The Martian, moreover, holds that the entire argument is irrelevant, for
even if he grants that there is a supernatural being that fashions that
which we behold at work in the universe, how can we say that he designed
all this without first knowing what his intention was? Only by knowing
the intention in the mind of a supernatural being before the act, can we
infer that something