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Jun
23
Why I Believe in Intelligent Design
Filed Under Devotionals
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NKJV)
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Work with me here a little bit as I attempt to explain why I believe in Intelligent design. First let us imagine having jigsaw puzzles. For the sake of this argument imagine that all the end pieces have been removed, you know the ones with the flat side you use to make the frame. Also I guess we must over look the obvious fact that someone put a picture on one side of each piece and cut each piece into different shapes. But again for this argument we need to assume some things just are.
Now take all 5 puzzles and dump them out onto the ground in one big pile. Throw away the boxes with the lids and any other instructions on how to put the puzzle together. Better yet, burn all that in a fire so there is no way you can refer to it again.
Pick up all the pieces and throw them up in the air and allow them to fall in random patterns around the ground. What do you see? Anything resemble a picture forming? Okay try it again, and again, actually do it 60 times an hour for one solid week. What do you suppose is the likelihood of any of the pieces actually falling into place together where they belong? Do you think at the end of a week you would actually see a pattern emerging? How about after 7 weeks? How about seven months, or perhaps seven years? Maybe it will take 7 decades, or longer.
Pass on this routine to your children and then onto their children even down to the 5th generation. Do you suppose that by the time it reached your great great great great grandchildren that perhaps one of the puzzles will actually be put together?
Now let us take this argument one step further and actually apply just the slightest bit of intelligence to the matter. Let us start with the same 5 puzzles with all the end pieces missing and no box design, all together in one big pile on the ground, but this time instead of just picking them up and dropping them and allowing chance to play a total role in the process take up a few pieces and look at them for distinguishing marks and structure. I am sure that if you examine the individual pieces closely enough you will see some similarities and some differences. Applying some intelligence then you could start to separate like sized pieces with similar colorings together into groups. You may notice that the pieces from one of the puzzles is slightly larger than the rest and those you could easily separate by themselves. The remaining pieces may be distinguishable in a similar manner.
Again working with no blueprint or design but using strictly one’s intellect, I can reasonably assume that sooner or later with constant work and effort you would start to be able to assemble individual pieces of the puzzles. After a long enough period of time pictures would start to emerge resembling what the puzzle designer had in mind when designing the puzzle. How long do you suppose it would take you to separate, organize, and fit together like pieces of the puzzles? You think that by the end of the week you could have all 5 puzzles put together correctly? How about in seven weeks or seven months? Do you suppose that seven decades would be amble amount of time? Would the amount of intelligence one possesses play a part in how long it would actually take? Do you think that an above average intelligence could assemble the mess quicker than one of lesser intelligence?
Now take the same 5 puzzles but this time all the end pieces are still in the boxes, there is still no picture to follow but at least you have the framework for each puzzle in each box. Take them and dump them into one big pile and now see how long it takes to assemble the same 5 puzzles. Does having the frame pieces make assembling easier? Does separating out all the flat sided pieces make sorting the rest of the puzzle pieces any easier? Do you think that the time it would take you to assemble the puzzle now would be longer or shorter than the previous examples?
Apart from applying intelligence to the mess, can you imagine that pile of puzzle pieces ever coming together in any semblance of order? Yet many believe in just that; when it comes to creation. Many believe that chance and adaptation formed this puzzle we call life. They remove any intelligence from the equation and just allowed simple randomness to happen. I can not for the life of me understand how anyone could believe this is a viable explanation.
We can see from the puzzle experiment that there is a certain amount of intelligence required to take a random mess and arrange it into some sort of order. Even if you apply only enough intelligence to separate the like pieces and then let random chance work out the rest, it still would not assemble those like pieces into anything that resembles a finished puzzle. However if you allow for the influx of intelligent design, from the concept through completion, then it is easy to see how it all fits together.
God is the designer and the architect of life. He assembled the like pieces together according to his pattern and plans. He established the framework in which all the pieces would fit together nicely. His laws are the framework that holds the universe together. Apart from God’s laws and framework all the elements would break apart and end up being one big mess.
Without the framework any puzzle would not be complete. You could not tell if you still had more of the puzzle to assemble because there would be no ending point, no guideline, no stopping place. All you would have is a puzzle with unfinished sides all looking for another piece to plug into the open end. It would be an unfinished work. A life without boundaries is a life always in search of something more to fulfill it. It is always aimlessly looking for another piece to fill the void. It is looking for something to give it some meaning. Without a framework we too would be an unfinished puzzle.
Now look once again at the 5 puzzles each in a pile on the floor. This time we have the framework and the original design all set before us. We know what the finished product is supposed to look like. How long do you think it will take you to finish the project now? Perhaps all 5 puzzles could be assembled correctly within a week. I am sure that with steady work you could certainly finish within a month.
If we take the puzzle pieces and divide them up amongst 7 different people and put the 7 different people on 7 different continents and have them each speaking a different language how difficult do you think it would be to assemble just one puzzle let alone all 5? Each person would only have their own frame of reference when looking at the puzzle pieces. They would assume that all the pieces they have are all supposed to fit into one puzzle and not 5 completely different puzzles. They may be able to assemble pieces of several puzzles but they would be unable to complete any of them without the input from the other 6 people.
You see, we know in part, we see only a small portion of the whole, therefore it is impossible apart from some common ground to understand the complexities of life. We, like those 7 people, only hold a handful of the pieces that are needed to complete the task set before us. We need to come together with others who possess a portion of the same puzzle in order to complete the task.
Apart from God’s divine intervention and input how could any of us possibly exist, let alone feel complete? We would only have our own selves to rely on and our own experiences to draw from. We would be left to our own intelligence or lack thereof in order to assemble a life worth living.
This is why I believe in intelligent design. For we are beautifully and wonderfully made. We are not just some random accumulation of left over pieces. But our life has a design and purpose to it and when complete it is beautiful.
But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. Isaiah 40:31
(BBE)
You don’t understand the mechanisms of evolution. You seem to think everything is random. There’s nothing random about natural selection.
Because you don’t understand the science of biological evolution, you believe all species were magically created by the sky fairy you call God. That’s what intelligent design means: “I don’t understand, therefore it was magic.”
You end with a Bible quote. That doesn’t surprise me. Willfully ignorant creationists like to quote the ancient worthless Bible.
I would suggest you could study evolution instead of lying about it, but it’s obvious you would rather forever live in your childish idiotic everything-is-magic fantasy world.
Is this a parody? Are you spoofing a typical creationist argument? Sorry, but it’s hard to tell sometimes. Poe’s Law is a tough nut to crack.
Using the very same logic, you must also conclude the presents under the Christmas tree can only be attributed to Santa. No other explanations can suffice.
Dave said “Using the very same logic, you must also conclude the presents under the Christmas tree can only be attributed to Santa. No other explanations can suffice.”
Actually no my logic would not conclude that presents under the tree could only have been left by Santa for several reasons but let us start with the first. Santa is FICTIONAL so therefore it would be insane to think Santa left presents under the tree.
However logic would conclude that presents were left under the tree by some person. They surely did not get there under their own power. They would have had to been placed there by someone. And logically the tree had to have been placed and decorated by someone as well for not even evolution teaches that a tree will cut itself down and set itself up in a home made from cut materials and then proceed to decorate itself with lights and bulbs and then place under itself presents.
So yes logic would dictate some sort of INTELLIGENT DESIGN to the whole Christmas tree experience. Of course I guess unintelligent design could have done it as well, after all you do not have to be too smart to set up a Christmas tree.
Bobxxx said “You end with a Bible quote. That doesn’t surprise me. Willfully ignorant creationists like to quote the ancient worthless Bible.”
Actually to be accurate I end all my posts with the same quotation. This to me and beings this is MY BLOG is my motto and creed for life. I have found the statement to be true throughout the course of my life. Waiting on the Lord surely does energize me to rise above life’s most challenging circumstances. So to you the bible is worthless to me it is of great worth.
I have found however that most “secular education” otherwise known as knowledge is worthless.
“Santa is FICTIONAL so therefore it would be insane to think Santa left presents under the tree.”
To a child, Santa is not fictional. Children are led to believe Santa is real and he comes down the chimney and visits the homes of all the good little boys and girls all over the world. This is even reinforced on the evening TV news on Christmas Eve. As children mature and figure out on their own, or with the assistance of their peers, that Santa is really Mommy and Daddy they also realize how preposterous it is that they ever believed the Santa myth in the first place. They have been deceived and what seemed true wasn’t afterall. The real explanations are so much more rational and objective. Same thing with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Similarly, many things in nature look designed. Only our rationality and objectivity permit us to figure out that looks can be deceiving and beter explanations can be discovered. It’s insane to not look and settle for the story we’ve been told.
A question for you, Eagleswings. Why didn’t the Intelligent Designer give us eyes as good as an Eagle’s?
And, just for the record, who do you believe is the Intelligent Designer?
Dave asked two questions:
A question for you, Eagleswings. Why didn’t the Intelligent Designer give us eyes as good as an Eagle’s?
And, just for the record, who do you believe is the Intelligent Designer?
Here is my reply:
Eagle vision being able to see great distances is actually possible with Godly vision. Prophets of old were able to see great distances into the future to forthtell of the coming of a messiah as well as other events that would happen in the future. There are those with Eagle vision today who have been given the gift of prophesy to foresee future events. So therefore I believe God has provided Eagle vision to some.
#2 The intelligent designer is God of course.
Dave opined:
Children are led to believe Santa is real and he comes down the chimney and visits the homes of all the good little boys and girls all over the world.
Relating the story of Santa as a fictional character to children would not be as offensive to me as allowing them to believe that a SANTA and 8 reindeer actually exist.
Of course our precious children are being told that Global warming is a truism and it is being reinforced in literature, curriculum, nightly news reports and media. So too is the supposition that somehow these precious young souls evolved from some apelike creature is being told to them as a truism as well.
I guess one good story deserves another?