American poet Robert Frost (1874–1963) wrote a poem, “Accidentally on Purpose,” first published in In the Clearing in 1962, commenting in verse on the failings of Darwinism:
“Till Darwin came to earth upon a year
To show the evolution how to steer,
They mean to tell us, though, the omnibus
Had no real purpose till it got to us.
Never believe it. At the very worst
It must have had the purpose from the first”
Frost closes the stanza with “We were just purpose coming to a head.”
He sounds like a panpsychist, especially if you read the whole poem. He certainly “gets” the problem with Darwinian naturalism. Naturalism provides no reasonable account of purpose, let alone intelligence and information, and yet they are everywhere.
See also: Are our minds just an extension of the minds of our cells? A prominent philosopher and a well-known biologist make the case, offering an illustration. Daniel Dennett and Michael Levin ask us to imagine that a model car has arrived and must be assembled according to instructions.