Michael Denton has a new book out, Children of Light: The astonishing properties of sunlight that made us possible, on the fitness of sunlight for life:
In this book, I have described the fitness of the radiation emitted by the Sun for life on Earth: the fitness of the atmosphere to ensure sufficient IR radiation is absorbed to warm the surface of the planet, preventing water from freezing and animating matter for chemical reactions; the fitness of the atmosphere to let through the visible light to the Earth surface to enable photosynthesis which generates the oxygen and reduced carbon fuel necessary to support our “light eating,” energy-demanding lifestyle; and the fitness of the same light for high-acuity vison in beings of our bodily design and size.
By “fitness” he means the ultra-fine focusing — fine almost beyond calculation — of multiple natural laws and natural phenomena, all converging on life, and intelligent life in particular, as we know it. As in his previous work, Denton draws on the insights of Lawrence Henderson (1878-1942) and ID’s godfather, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), while showing how unlike Darwinian natural selection, the idea of natural fitness has been accumulating evidence in its favor for going on two centuries and promises to continue to do so into the future.
Denton’s basic theme:
“[T]here must surely be many more elements of fitness for our biology which await discovery. This expectation is borne out by the fact that every major advance in science since the beginning of the nineteenth century has revealed further element of unique fitness in nature for life on Earth.” David Klinghoffer, “Let There Be Light — New Book from Michael Denton Continues Privileged Species Series” at Evolution News and Science Today
See also: Michael Denton’s Evolution (Still) a Theory in Crisis a Spectator “Best Book”?
and
What becomes of science when the evidence does not matter?