The Intelligent Designer

Throughout my life, much of what I have read indicates that many people seem to think Christianity and science are in opposition to each other. However, many big-picture scientific findings have strengthened my faith immeasurably. With Question Evolution Day (QED, on February 12, which is Charles Darwin’s birthday) almost here, I’ve been thinking about intelligent design recently. Never heard of QED? I hadn’t either until a year ago; thank you, Creation Cowboy Bob Sorensen!

In regard to intelligent design, let’s begin, briefly, with the origin of the universe. Without getting technical, let’s just say that it is now widely accepted that the universe had a beginning; this is true regardless of whether people believe in a “young” earth or an “ancient” one. Why is this important? Because if the universe had a definite beginning, it begs the question of what preceded it and what caused it. For a Christian like myself, this is not a difficult question to answer.

A second type of origin is that of life. Perhaps you’ve heard of the famous experiment in 1953 by Stanley Miller; supposedly, he was able to create at least some of the 20 amino acids that are essential for life. However, about half of his acids were “left-handed,” and half were “right-handed.” The problem is that life is made up of only left-handed amino acids. What Miller “created” in his controlled experiment was actually poisonous to life. (Thanks to Michael Earl Riemer for reminding me of this poison in his book Reindeer Don’t Fly.) Sidney Fox did a follow-up experiment in 1958 to “connect” amino acids into protein-like structures, but his “proteins” weren’t proteins at all; the amino acids in his structures were scrambled, random sequences which are useless for life.

What these two “origin-of-life” experiments actually showed us, then, is that life cannot spontaneously appear on its own. Fred Hoyle, a great astronomer, once said this: “The probability of life arising by chance is the same probability as throwing a six on a dice five million consecutive times.” Hoyle’s solution to the origin of life was panspermia, which is the theory that life on earth originated from microorganisms or chemical precursors of life in outer space; they found a “home” here on earth and started life. This “theory” is science-fiction, not science! Again, for a Christian, the answer to the origin of life is not problematic.

There is another aspect of intelligent design that is called the finely-tuned universe. This means that the universe is specifically designed for intelligent life to exist; in other words, if certain features of the universe were slightly different, life could not exist.  (Don’t worry; I won’t get too technical.) There are certain constants (in a mathematical sense) in nature which are remarkably finely tuned with the universe. Take the fine-structure constant, which governs atomic interactions. It is equal to 0.0073: a very small number! If it were slightly different, equal to 0.0072 or 0.0074, for example, the stars (including our sun) would either have burned out very rapidly or forever remained cold and dark, respectively; in neither case would life in the universe be possible.

A second example of our finely-tuned universe has to do with the expansion rate of the universe. (It is well established that the universe is expanding.) If the early expansion rate had been larger, galaxies would not have formed, thus making star formation very difficult; if it had been smaller, the universe would have collapsed prior to star formation. In neither case would life be possible.

My third and final example of our finely-tuned universe is the so-called “Goldilocks zone.” This refers to the distance a planet needs to be from its “parent” star (in our case, the sun) in order for liquid water to exist; without water, of course, life as we know it is not possible. The planet Mars is barely within this zone and used to have liquid water; regardless, its atmosphere is too thin to support life. Our planet, on the other hand, is situated “just right,” in the words of Goldilocks!

When we look at the evidence for the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and examples of the finely-tuned universe (there are so many more than the three I’ve mentioned), the evidence for a Creator is, frankly, overwhelming. In addition, the evidence for evolution is, well, very underwhelming, to put it mildly; click here if you’re interested in reading something I wrote about it: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2020/09/16/is-evolution-a-viable-theory/ Earlier, I mentioned Bob Sorensen. Here is the link to Bob’s site, full of articles questioning evolution: https://www.piltdownsuperman.com/; be sure to check out his “Question Evolution Day” link near the top of the page. There are also many books that have been written questioning evolution; I heartily recommend Phillip Johnson’s Darwin on Trial.

As I have talked with Christians over the years, I have found again and again that many parents are afraid that as their kids study science, they will “lose” their faith in God. That is understandable given our public-school system’s strong bias against Christianity and for naturalism, which seeks to explain everything without God. As I mentioned at the outset of this post, however, big-picture scientific findings regarding origins, our finely-tuned universe, and evolution have strengthened my faith in the Lord God immeasurably. I believe the same can be true for you.