ID Advocates

I really like the people who advocate for Intelligent Design Theory (of course I know of them mostly through the Internet). They are smart, brave, and dedicated. I think they are able to see the clash between certain limits of physical laws and the make-up of biological organisms. There is something that doesn't fit, such as the complexity of DNA compared to molecular movements in the kinetic theory of matter, and the ID people are hot on the trail.

Now, I am not saying the arguments of these advocates are perfect.

For one, some design advocates may concentrate on biological life and think about how it differs from non-living matter. Others focus on the universe and what we call the "Anthropic Principle," which describes the physical "coincidences" that have made our universe amazingly hospitable to life. However, if both the universe and biological life show aspects of design, the ID people are not proving design when they say one is more complex than the other. That just compares them. There may be discontinuities between designs, which is still significant, but not lack of design in one or the other.

Beside the first point, we must make the distinction between those advocates who believe in God and those who don't. This would be the first thing ID advocates would not want done, because they are saying their science of design detection is not related to any religious belief. I think they are wrong.

A Christian goes to church every Sunday (we hope) and says the creeds of that church or if not attending at least holds the creeds of that church. Christian creeds state we believe God created heaven and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

Therefore, the Christian does not have to scientifically detect design or prove it. S/he believes it is everywhere, and that science is the study of designed physical entities. That any of us recognize and admire design is an innate quality that God gave us in the first place. Christians do (or should) stand apart from the mainstream which has insisted for so long that science is supreme. Often secular scientists intimidate others who do not think the same way.

Even non-believers have the potential appreciation of design, though they may not yet have arrived at the belief that God is the Designer. Some of the ID advocates are not of an organized faith, yet recognize design in nature.

That leads us to the basis for our lives. It is Faith that is the foundation of our knowledge, not Science or even Reason (although we have to think to be functional, at least). Faith is what gets us on the right track and keeps us there. Then we can learn science to our heart's content, and praise God for His creation every step of the way.

Faith is a mystery. Perhaps I will write more about it as time goes on.

2013 Update: my interest in Intelligent Design Theory (ID) has changed to what is called "Special Creationism," the belief that God created species separately and directly. Much of the biological science in ID is similar to Special Creationism.