Design is the purposeful
arrangement of parts as evidenced by a functional
system; specifically defined by the particular
function that requires the greatest amount of the system's internal complexity.
Then we can judge how well the parts fit the function.
Without knowing who designed
something, we can still easily ascertain
something was designed.
The questions to ask are:
Do things we see and experience
everyday arrive by design or by some other mechanism?
It is scientifically unsound
to make any assumptions
of the way things ought to be. For example: If we were God, we would design
things differently, so that created beings couldn't get disease or deformities.(abnormal
bodily functions). We all make the mistake of assuming that God would act
as we would; that he would create a perfect universe; but we see disease,
evils in many forms, and erroneously
conclude that this is not
of God.
The problem with the imperfection
argument is that the argument demands perfection at all. The argument overlooks
the possibility that the designer might have multiple motives,
with engineering excellence perhaps relegated
to a secondary role. The reason why or why not a designer may or may not
do something are difficult to know unless the designer reveals to you specifically
what those reasons are. For example: the planned obsolescence
of an automobile or a light bulb.
The conclusion that some
parts of life were designed can be made in the absence of knowledge about
when the designing took place.
To reach a conclusion of
design requires the identification of the components of an interacting
system and the roles they play, as well as the determination that the system
is not a composite
of several systems. To reach a strong presumption
of non design will require the demonstration that a system is not irreducibly
complex or does not have much specificity
between its components.
One way in which a simple
idea can be sidetracked is through conflation (putting two things together
to make a whole) with an extraneous (coming from outside; foreign) idea.
Intelligent design is the
purposeful arrangement of parts. It is not a religious
idea. The idea of intelligent design flows easily from the data
itself.
How do we detect
design? When we see order towards output, and product function beyond
individual components,
we see design and planned purpose in diverse
systems.
Such ordered variety is
evidenced everywhere.
Molecular biochemistry has
elicited
the question: Could anything but an intelligent agent have designed these
most complex
biological
functions at the
molecular level to perform 'first time out' and as they continue to
do today?
Let us first look at only
two of many of man's achievements; the automobile and the computer.
The car is a marvelous example
of integrated
design. Let's compare it with the human body. And let's keep in mind the
maxim,
it is beyond the capacity of a humans to create anything greater in intelligence
than ourselves; in fact, we copy from God's designs all
the time.
Scientific American, December, 1999, page 67
"we seem as far away from an understanding of cognitive
processes today as a century ago."
A vehicle has an eliminative
system where engine waste from combustion to power the vehicle comes out
the back and constantly. Vehicles have a circulatory system with 'blood'
that has to be drained and replaced every so often. A temperature system
must be maintained. 'Food' must be given it or it won't go. A car has a
'nose' to take in air for combustion (the process of burning) after being
mixed by the carburetor or fuel injectors with 'food' from its gas tank.
If it gets a cut on a door,
it can't fix itself. It doesn't even know when its 'blood' is dirty and
of course its filters must be changed. To do all these things a vehicle
has to be of sufficient size to accommodate these functioning mechanisms.
A vehicle must be guided as to what to do. It cannot see where to go or
function without an overriding guiding intelligence that someone has to
put into it.
Human body waste also comes
out the back and the front (including the face where we breathe out) and
the skin. Humans have many specialized eliminative systems. Consider sweat,
breathing, etc.
Humans too have a circulatory
system. But ours cleans and replenishes itself.
Are the amazing coagulative
(to cause a fluid to become a soft, semisolid mass) properties of our
blood a product of intelligent design, or is
it possible that the many hurdles of evolution were somehow overcome
to produce it?
God says that the blood is
responsible for providing life to the flesh:.Leviticus
17:11 "For the life of the flesh is in the blood....."
Does God Exist Index
