Michael Shermer on The argument from design

Shermer treats the design argument as a cognitive illusion explained by evolutionary psychology. Humans evolved to detect patterns and attribute them to agents — seeing a face in the clouds, hearing a voice in the wind, perceiving purpose in the structure of a cell. This tendency, which Shermer calls 'patternicity,' was adaptive in ancestral environments but produces false positives in the modern world.

The design argument, on Shermer's account, is the grandest false positive of all: the inference that the order and complexity of the universe implies a cosmic designer. Shermer argues that once we understand the cognitive bias that produces this inference, its intuitive force evaporates.

He points to the history of science as a progressive dismantling of design arguments. The motion of the planets, the diversity of life, the structure of the brain — each was once attributed to design and each has received a natural explanation. The pattern suggests that the remaining instances of apparent design will yield to the same treatment.