Teleology:
applied to any system attempting to explain a series of events in terms of ends, goals, or purposes.
It is opposed to mechanism, the theory that all events may be explained by mechanical principles of causation. Aristotle argued that all nature reflects the purposes of an immanent final cause.
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/teleolog
"Teleological notions were commonly associated with the pre-Darwinian view that the biological realm provides evidence of conscious design by a supernatural creator. Even after creationist viewpoints were rejected by most biologists there remained various grounds for concern about the role of teleology in biology, including whether such terms are:
vitalistic (positing some special "life-force");
requiring backwards causation (because future outcomes explain present traits);
incompatible with mechanistic explanation...
mentalistic (attributing the action of mind where there is none);
empirically untestable (for all the above reasons)...
bravenet.com