There’s the old story of if you were to find a watch on a beach, would you conclude it assembled itself? Did it cause its existence? While we know a watch is manufactured, engineered and designed by humans, the rest of God’s glorious perfection gets overlooked. Intelligent Design in Biology is the search for a conscious mind in the design of life. Irreducible complexity is another facet of this search which poses the question; how did complex components of life develop whose function depends on ALL of its parts? Here are some premises and conclusions on organic life’s origins.
Design in Biology: Origin of Organic Life
1) Given what we know, complex organic life in the universe could not have originated naturalistically. 2) If, given what we know, complex organic life in the universe could not have originated naturalistically, it’s reasonable to believe it originated super-naturalistically. 3) So, it’s reasonable to believe that complex organic life originated supernaturalistically.
● Charles B. Thaxton, Walter L. Bradley, Roger L. Olsen, The Mystery of Life’s Origin: Reassessing Current Theories (Lewis & Stanley, 1992).
● Stephen Meyer, Chandler’s Divine Intervention Argument
1) Given that God intervenes to produce life of Earth, there is no chance at all that there will be no life on earth (the probability of the conjunct “God intervenes to produce life on Earth” and “Life does not occur on Earth” is zero). 2) If God does not intervene to produce life on Earth, the probability that life will occur here is very low. 3) It is just as reasonable to bet that God will intervene to produce life on Earth as that he won’t (the subjective probability is around 50/50). 4) But there will be life on Earth. 5) So, it is likely that God will intervene to produce life on Earth.
Vulgar version of Paley: 1) Some things in nature resemble human artifacts. 2) Human artifacts are the product of intentional design. 3) So, we should infer that things in nature that resemble human artifacts are also products of intentional design. 4) If there are things in nature that are products of intentional design, God exists. 5) So, God exists.
More faithful version of Paley: 1) If x is design-like, then x can only be the product of intentional design. 2) Some things in nature are design-like. 3) So, some things in nature are products of intentional design.
1) DNA is like an intentionally designed computer program. 2) Intentionally designed computer programs have intelligent designers. 3) If DNA is like an intentionally designed computer program, it, too probably has an intelligent designer. 4) So DNA probably has an intelligent designer.
1) Information is inherent to the building blocks of life. 2) Information is the product of intelligence. 3) If information is inherent to the building blocks of life, then the building blocks of life themselves are the byproduct of intelligence. 4) So, the building blocks of life are the byproduct of intelligence.
● Stephen Meyer, The Signature in the Cell (HarperOne, 2010). – Highly recommended ● Robert Marks II, et al. (eds.), Biological Information: New Perspectives (World Scientific Publishing Co., 2013).
Tennant’s Argument From Cosmic Teleology
1) The universe is conspicuously suitable for intelligent, moral beings in many ways. a) There is just one universe with the ingredients for life. b) Those ingredients have come together (at least in one place) to make an environment not just habitable, but conducive to the flourishing of organic life. c) Some of those world’s flourishing inhabitants find the world intelligible (namely, us). d) Being intelligible, they also find it beautiful. e) these facts together suggest the unfolding of a plan, behind which is“purposive intelligence.” 2) If the universe is conspicuously suitable for intelligent, moral then it should be regarded as a theater for the lives of intelligent, moral agents designed by God. 3) So, the universe should be regarded as a theater for the lives of intelligent, moral beings designed by God.
That humans can observe and appreciate beauty is another pointer to an absolute standard of the existence of the transcendental. The three transcendentals, truth, beauty and goodness, are considered by Christians to be evidence of God’s attributes. Beauty and goodness allude to truth.
● F. R. Tennant, Philosophical Theology Vol. II (Cambridge, 1930), pp. 78-120.
see also: Why Does the Universe Exist?
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