Why Intelligent Design Is The Smart Choice

Why Intelligent Design Is The Smart Choice
John R. Petrilli

If you haven’t seen the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, you should do so at your earliest convenience. Without question, it’s a “must see” film for Christians. Just released in April, this highly creative production enjoys the rare endorsement of Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus On The Family. It deals with evolutionary theory’s progressive disintegration in the face of cutting edge scientific discoveries, and how the scientific community [particularly at the collegiate level] is scrambling to prevent the crumbling walls of this unscientific theory from suffering total collapse. Motivated by the thrust of this movie, and the desire to present a sane and satisfying view of human as well as cosmic origins, I offer the following case for Intelligent Design from a scientific, existential, and Biblical perspective.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS THE SMART CHOICE BASED ON THE BEST SCIENTIFIC DATA. .

“Consider air conditioning and the beehive. The common bee keeps its beehive brooding area at a constant 94 degrees via its ingenious construction and the activity of bee ‘air conditioning engineers’. Who taught the bee air conditioning?

Consider the mechanical pump and the human heart. What machine compares with the human heart that pumps 100,000 every day, and has a work expectancy of over 70 years? Who designed the heart?

Consider modern photography and the human eye. The human eye has all the features of a high-tech camera: a built-in super sensitive light meter, immediate automatic focusing, wide-angle lens, and full-color instantaneous reproduction. Who planned and engineered the eye?

Consider computers and your brain. The human brain contains many more nerve lines than all the telephone lines of the world combined. The electrical signals from 200,000 living thermometer cells, a half-million pressure-sensing cells, and 3 or 4 million pain-sensing cells are all routed to the brain. The brain sorts, stores, and acts upon these myriad impulses. Who built this fantastic ‘computer’?

These and many other discoveries demonstrate man’s prodigious scientific achievements, and are the result of man’s very high order of intelligence. But since they parallel what nature has been doing for thousands of years, nature’s phenomenon must also be the result of a very high order of intelligence.” [Courtesy of the gospel tract titled, “The Prior Claim”]

With advances in molecular biology and nanotechnology, scientists are discovering the amazing intricacies and complexities of the human cell. When asked to compare Darwin’s knowledge of a single cell to what we know today, one contemporary scientist states that it would be like comparing a slug to a galaxy. These indescribable complexities and intricate processes reveal a design that speaks loudly and unarguably for a Designer.

Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics - also called the law of increasing entropy- states that every system – whether closed or open – at least tends toward decay. This law has been a universally accepted scientific given for centuries. It implies that, if left unaffected, matter naturally moves from a state of order to a state of disorder. This scientific law answers perfectly to Romans 8 where we learn that the fall of man triggered a corresponding fall in all of creation, with the cosmos being thrown into a perpetual state of degeneration. Dr. Henry Morris of the Institute For Creation Research states that the universe is running down, heading toward an ultimate heat death. It would be unscientific and totally illogical to conclude that the reverse is true. Yet this is what evolutionary theory postulates, namely, that a cosmic state of total disorder found a way to override Newton’s Law, and brought order out of pure chaos.

Sir Francis Bacon wrote, “I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind. And therefore God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because His ordinary works convince it”. Dr. Harry Ironside comments, “This orderly universe with its succession of seasons and the mathematical accuracy of the heavenly bodies bears testimony to the Divine mind.” The respected early Christian apologist Tertullian wrote, “One flower of the hedgerow by itself, I think –I do not say a flower of the meadows; one shell of any sea you like – I do not say a pearl from the Red Sea; one feather of a moor fowl-to say nothing of a peacock-will they speak to you of a mean Creator?”


INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS THE SMART CHOICE BASED ON THE BEST SOCIOLOGICAL DATA.

If one overarching theme runs consistently throughout the arts, it’s the search for the meaning of life. Playwrights, artists, authors, poets, songwriters, philosophers, and commoners alike have all pondered the purpose of our existence. Such a consideration is a noble and worthwhile pursuit, for the conclusions reached determine one’s core values and greatly influence one’s life decisions.

The evolutionary model labels humans as the product of chance with no inherent dignity, moral value, or individual purpose. Such a position ultimately leads to a loss of personal significance and self worth. The aimless emptiness of life lived by this philosophy is described by a pop tune from the early 80’s titled “Dust In The Wind”, whose lyrics read, “All we are is dust in the wind”.

On the other hand, those adhering to a model of Intelligent Design live with the assurance and confidence that their individual lives carry inherent meaning and purpose because they are the product of divine purpose, not mere biological chance. God tells us that we are fashioned and redeemed to reflect His image (Gen. 1:27 ; Col. 3:10), created for His glory (Isa. 43:7), and individually designed to serve Him and our fellow men in a specific capacity (Eph. 2:10). In so doing, Intelligent Design provides a satisfying explanation for the meaning and purpose of life.

Moreover, where evolution promises nothing but a meaningless existence, inevitable death, and hopeless extinction, belief in an Intelligent Designer, Loving Creator, and Personal Redeemer gives needed perspective for this life as well as the permanent state of joy believers will experience when measurable time dissolves into infinite eternity. From an existential perspective, then, intelligent design has far more to offer, both in terms of current quality of life as well as the promise of an enjoyable eternal state.

It’s a well-established fact that, from antiquity, both civilized and uncivilized people groups around the globe have acknowledged a Creator. Their recognition of intelligent design as revealed in the cosmos led them to worship this higher Being with a host of worship activities and behaviors. Tom Westwood writes, “Behind the material creation there is a blueprint of divine purpose of which the material creation itself is an expression. God has endowed all men with intelligence enough to look upon the visible creation and discern therein this marvelous pattern of divine purpose, sufficient to lead their hearts away from sin and bring them to a knowledge of the true God”.


INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS THE SMART CHOICE BASED ON THE BEST SCRIPTURAL DATA.

Our final consideration involves the Biblical perspective on intelligent design. What does the Bible say with regard to the presence of Intelligence behind the creation and maintenance of the cosmos? First, in Psalm 104:24 we discover that God used intelligence when He created this world, “ How many are Your works, O Lord, in wisdom You have made them all!” “Wisdom” is just another way of saying “intelligence”. One glance at the starry heavens should convince an open mind that it took immeasurable wisdom to bring such a synchronized and synergistic cosmos into existence. The universe we live in is well designed from the tiniest gamma ray to the light years expanse of a cluster of galaxies.

Also, we’re informed that the origin of our cosmos involved a Person. “In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth”. So what kind of Person is this God? A look at the heavens and earth tells us that He’s a powerful Being. Romans 1:20 states that the created world informs us about God’s eternal power. Bible teacher Richard DeHaan notes on Psalm 19, “The Psalmist, awed by the living beauty of the oriental sky, sees the heavens as singing a perpetual anthem of glory to God. Any intelligent person who listens to the voice of his heart as he observes the heavens will acknowledge that behind it all is a wise Designer and powerful Creator. The searching soul who begins with this will be led to faith in God.”

One may ask how it is that intelligent, thinking men can adopt such an untenable position? The answer lies in understanding the nature of the true problem. Simply put, the debate really centers on what one’s worldview is. Evolutionists begin with a worldview that has no divine component, then fashion their “science” to fit their worldview. This presumptive approach to origins is readily apparent in the way that evolutionists tenaciously grasp Darwin’s theory in spite of the fact that not one shred of scientific evidence has been found to substantiate a trans-species mutation of any kind. Darwin’s theory stands or falls on the basic tenet that adaptation from one species to another has repeatedly occurred over time. Yet no evidence supporting such a notion has ever been produced. The proponents of Intelligent Design in general, and the exponents of Creationism in particular, find such an approach to origins not only unpalatable, but also blatantly unscientific. If anything, the intricate order and mind-boggling efficiency of our macro and micro universes indicates the presence of forethought, intentionality, purposefulness, skillfulness, and the highest degree of rationality.

I believe such willful denial of visible evidence and active suppression of creation truth is driven by the moral implications associated with acknowledging the existence of such a deity. Such deliberate ignorance eventually leads to a spiritually insensitive intellect, moral blindness, and social disintegration (Romans 1:21-32). When otherwise intelligent people scan the mysterious wonders of creation and come away disavowing the existence of a personal First Cause or Divine Creator, they’ve entered the realm of moral and intellectual folly (Psa. 14:1 ; Rom. 1:22). Willful denial of that which is so patently obvious is an exercise in intellectual dishonesty and moral irresponsibility of the highest order. This is where the atheist and agnostic live. Small wonder God puts such individuals in the category of those “without excuse” when it comes to having sufficient light with regard to the existence of an Intelligent Designer.

In conclusion, whether one looks up into the heavens, or down into the world of the electron microscope, or inside his own being, the fingerprint of a vastly superior Intelligence is seen everywhere. Only self-imposed blindness or intentional ignorance can account for drawing any conclusion other than this: There is a God!