Just up from the quote mine: When biology actually does make sense, ...

A friend writes to say,

One frequently quoted line in biology is Dobzhansky's (1973):

"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

It was refreshing, however, to read John Dupre's footnote to this quotation:

"Actually I suspect that much of molecular biology would make perfectly good sense if biological organisms had been deliberately designed by God or Martians. And arguably molecular biology is currently a more active field (though not, perhaps, a theory) than is the study of evolution." (1)

It's nice to hear a bit of balance being brought to this overused dictum!

REF:
(1) Dupre, J. (2001) In defence of classification. Stud. His. Phil. Biol. Sci. 32(2):203-219.

Find out why there is an intelligent design controversy: