Instead, throughout the long period that life has been on Earth, the temperature and sea salinity has been regulated to within the limits required by life, and the composition of the atmosphere is vastly different from its equilibrium state. The Earth, like other living systems is therefore also a thermodynamically open system existing in an unlikely state. In the case of living organisms it is possible in principal to attribute apparent design to the winnowing effect of natural selection. The design of a cooperative system over the whole Earth, like the design of cooperation in humans, animals and plants, therefore points to the importance of co-operation in the overall design plan. These phenomena make it more likely that the design of our biosphere and everything inside it is the result of a design plan by a loving Creator, who designed all of us to co-operate with our own and other species.
Nature films are full of footage of predation and parasitism.
Altruism is seen as just another form of enlightened self interest. The importance of competition should not be underestimated, and it is also important that we do not deny the many brutal features of the natural world. Living things require co-operation all the time to maintain homeostasis, and within species there are many examples of one species helping another. However, there needs to be more of this type of balance in biological education as a whole. It also needs to be pointed out many of the altruistic elements in nature cannot be explained through blind chance, but rather require a Designer, with cooperation as part of the design plan.