I Am Waiting For The Stars To Change

I don't really want to harsh your mellow if you truly are religious, and I certainly do not want to demean your faith. Just think of this as a thought exercise.

When those who propound intelligent design try to use the framework of science and logic, it always seems a bit awkward, like William Hung singing--sure he's speaking English, but not very well. You hear them say, "Hey, the universe is so complex, it must be made!" See, we're using your own "rationality" and "logic" to show you that you're wrong! We're scientific too!

Now, a lot of well respected scientists have debunked "intelligent design" and have shown how intelligent design proponents have taken bits and pieces of real science and contorted them into their own agenda. To use another music analogy, all intelligent design propenents have done is make a mash-up--like that "White Lines" cover that sampled Ronald Reagan's speeches to make it sound like the Gipper was covering Grandmaster Flash. So instead, I'll take a different tact. Instead of talking about rationality, I'll talk about miracles.

The bulwark of "intelligent design", which is just a fancy word for creationism, has always been about faith. And the framework of faith had originally been about the mystery of God, and the miracles that God presents as a testament of his existence and of his benificence. Thus, underpinning religion is this notion of the miraculous, that which cannot be explained by rationality alone (which is why the current use of the rationality framework by, oh well let's just say it, the religious right, seems as awkward as the English language instructions on chopsticks at cheap Chinese restaurants).

So if the basis of your faith is the miraculous and the mystery, then here's a question for you. Which is more miraculous? That a universe as complex enough to lead to intelligent life was designed, or that it spontaneously arose from nothing with no design at all?

(And before you say, "Ah hah, well if you believe that it would be miraculous that the universe arose out of nothing, then you have to believe that the rational explanation is intelligent design," I call shenanigans. In this case, the miraculous explanation of no designer is supported by scientific evidence).