Blind watchmaker in action

In 1802 (when theories of evolution were getting off the ground, but well before Darwin published Origin), William Paley wrote, in his book Natural Theology, what has since become a standard criticism: the argument from complexity. In his example he pointed out that, if we found a watch on the ground, we would be in no doubt that it had a designer.

Scroll forward 200 years, and here’s fascinating video showing the results of a computer simulation of evolution. Starting from basic components – gears, springs etc – a functional clock evolves over many generations. And not just one clock – each time the simulation is run, it evolves a somewhat different solution to the same basic problem. Now what are the chances of that happening?