Monday, February 27, 2012

Why I Believe in Intelligent Design

When I was a young, green, college student at Compton College California in 1966, I took an Anthropology class; the teacher was Mr. Kay, I don't remember his first name.  In the class we were required to read the classic by Charles Darwin, On The Origin of Species.  After reading the book and the following class discussions, I was puzzled by Darwin's argument on the Galapagos Finches, which is a major reason he gave for his theory.  I found the argument unconvincing to say the least.  How can a slight increase or decrease (no more than one fifth of an inch) in the the size of a small bird's beak  be used to jump to the conclusion that this supports species changing from one to another, say, a fish to a bird or an aquatic animal to a land animal, and all you needed is time.  I found it to be quite a stretch.

In the late 1990s, I happened to hear a radio interview with Phillip Johnson, a law professor from the University of California at Berkley, who had written a book called Darwin on Trial .  When I heard Dr. Johnson speak it quickly ignited my interest in Darwinian evolution.  Johnson challenged Darwin's views using a courtroom method of challenging a premise to see if it could be true.  To date, I've read about 30 books on the subject and continue to be energized by it.  What puzzles me today is how Darwinism is taken as proven fact and how anyone who challenges their view is demonized and, in some cases, viciously attacked.   Why would anyone be annoyed, as Darwinists are, when they hear dissenting views?  This, to me, says that they are not at all comfortable with their evidence.  if they were, why would they be so exorcised by any dissent?  It is obvious to me that the Darwinian view is more faith than evidence, whereas, Intelligent Design is based on the preponderance of evidence as seen in the fine tuning of the universe. How people can say that the universe is the result of mindless chance is, again, beyond me.  Darwin's main claim was that, although his fossil record was incomplete, in time scientists would find the missing links.  One hundred and fifty years later there are still no missing links.

Now, I have great respect for Charles Darwin, and specifically his work The Origins of Species.  Darwin was a good scientist.  I believe that he followed the scientific method and was intellectually honest.  In this work, Darwin did point out the weakness of his theory but he believed that his theory would be justified once science found the missing pieces, specifically the missing fossils.  Darwin further stated this about his theory: "if it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case."   

I will develop this subject in future posts and will provide links and supporting documentation.  I hope you will return and read them and comment on them.

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