The continental plates drift “micro” distances each year, yet over millions of years their collisions erect “marco” mountain ranges. We can measure the gradual drifting of tectonic plates, just as we can observe gradual changes in organisms, but we cannot witness the development of a new mountain range or a totally new animal; the process much too slow.

We can infer from the geological evidence that plate tectonics gives rise to new mountains over time. In just the same way, we can infer from biological and paleontological evidence that evolution gives rise to new animals over time.

The actual quote from Newton was not in support of intelligent design creationism as we know and love it today, but rather in support of a long-since-discredited creationist idea about God controlling the movement of the planets. In a letter to the Reverend Dr. Richard Bentley in 1692, Newton wrote: “To your second query I answer that the motions which the planets now have could not spring from any natural cause alone but were impressed by an intelligent agent.”

No astronomers of today support this of, course, just as essentially no actual biologists of today accept the similarly ludicrous claims of intelligent design creationism. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_falling to put this concept into perspective.)

It’s disappointing but not particularly surprising that Casey would bring up this obviously theistic citation in support of the purportedly non-theistic (at least in public) intelligent design variant of creationism.

Evolution, as a concept, does not preclude a Prime Mover. If I build an engine to power my car, descriptions of the mechanics and physics and manufacturing process may well give little focus on me, the inventor. One might well hear phrases such as “the pistions do this, the mixture of petrol and air do that when ignited by the spark plug”, and omit saying, “‘the pistons invented by Amfortas the Almighty do this, the mixture of petrol and air organised by our Omnipotent Amfortas do that when ignited by the spark plug He designed in His Great Wisdom”. Indeed, such analysis might even omit the fact that the vehicle was designed to carry Me at all and focus instead on My passengers’ comfort.

Once, long ago, in another age, someone wrote all about the ‘beginning’, and Big G got a lot of good press. Mr Darwin, much later, did a bit of reverse engineering thinking and described some of the possible mechanics. The writers of old were not very mechanically inclined and hadn’t learned much at school, but they held the Inventor in some awe.