INTELLIGENT DESIGN ARGUMENT | KAIROS GLOBAL | NOVEMBER 2022

Author: Aby Jacob

Intro: In the second part, Aby Jacob presents the Intelligent Design argument to prove the existence of God. 

The existence of God is foundational to constructing a systematic defense for the absolute truth. If God does not exist, making a case for the Christian faith is meaningless. In a previous article, I introduced two cosmological arguments for the existence of God as the Cause and Necessary Sufficient Reason for the existence of the universe. This article aims to present another argument known as Intelligent Design. Through these articles, my goal is to present a robust cumulative case for God’s existence without appealing to Scripture. I hope this may help you develop an intellectually rigorous faith in the absolute truth. 

Think about the following question for a moment before you continue reading! Are you an accidental byproduct of unguided natural processes without intrinsic value and purpose (as atheists believe) or created by a designer with intrinsic worth and purpose (as theists believe)? I find many reasons to believe that I am not an accidental byproduct of nature but designed with value, dignity, objective meaning, and eternal purpose being made in the image of God. 

A Commonsense Understanding of Design

Everyone can discover evidence for design themselves in nature. For example, suppose you are driving by the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, where you can see the giant carved faces of the past few American presidents on a mountain. By seeing them, you will never think that it was formed by soil erosion or wind. You will never conclude that natural law or chance produced them. Instead, your common sense will tell you that a sculptor purposefully designed those faces because you can notice complexity (human faces) and specificity (past presidents). This is a simple illustration of design detection. 

Scientific naturalists (logically equivalent to atheists) believe that we are just a product of random mutation and natural selection (aka macro-evolution). If unguided macro-evolution is true, did evolution know we need eyes to see, ears to hear, mouth to eat, tongue to taste, teeth to chew, nose to smell, legs to walk, hands to work, etc.? Did evolution know all these features must be arranged perfectly for specific functions? What if eyes, ears, mouth, tongue, teeth, nose, legs, and hands exchanged positions? Wouldn't they become purposeless? Knowing the complexity and specificity using common sense, how can one deny a designer mind behind and give credit to blind natural processes? Wouldn’t it devalue our life in the first place? 

Moreover, how can one trust their thoughts if their mind is not designed for the purpose of thinking but was accidentally formed for no particular purpose? Their thoughts are just some chemical fluctuations, then. When we take atheism to its logical conclusion, human beings are just an accidental byproduct of blind, unguided natural processes which had no goal of becoming what we are now. In the bottom line, we have no intrinsic value, meaning, or purpose. We are just a thick chunk of meat that happened to exist for no reason. Would you believe this purely naturalistic (atheistic) conclusion that devalues your very existence?  

An innocent four-year-old child can understand the hallmark of design with common sense better than the adult atheists who blindly believe that the natural world is all there is and that everything they see is just cosmic accidents. The evidence for design is overwhelming in nature. To understand design, one does not need to believe in God or the special revelation (Bible). We can see a lot of examples through our naked eye. We can also detect designs through empirical findings. In this article, I aim to briefly introduce the scientific theory of Intelligent Design (ID), the scientific method, the design detection method, and its application in the biological discovery of complex and specified information in DNA. I would further argue that ID has a philosophical/theological implication that points to a designer, which is an argument for the existence of God. 

The Scientific Theory of Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design (ID) is a scientific theory of design detection. ID is a scientific research programme with a community of scientists, philosophers, and other scholars who seek evidence for design in nature.ⁱ As soon as the label ‘Intelligent Design or ID’ is noticed, scientific naturalists (atheists) reject it by listing it as a different version of ‘creationism.’ Honest critics of ID can easily identify the difference between creationism and intelligent design. Creationism starts with religious texts and finds out how the writings can be reconciled with science, but ID starts with empirical evidence and infers design based on the findings. Historian of science Ronald Numbers, a critic of ID, agrees that ‘the creationist label is inaccurate when it comes to the ID movement.’ Numbers also says giving such a label is ‘the easiest way to discredit intelligent design.’ⁱⁱ The New World Encyclopedia defines Intelligent Design as:

‘the view that it is possible to infer from empirical evidence that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. . .  ID relies on scientific evidence rather than on Scripture or religious doctrines. ID makes no claims about biblical chronology, and technically a person does not have to believe in God to infer intelligent design in nature.’ⁱⁱⁱ

The Scientific Method

The scientific method is commonly described as a four-step process involving observation, hypothesis, experiments, and conclusion.^iv Intelligent design is a scientific theory as it determines design through the scientific method. The intelligent design theorist can determine whether certain features discovered from empirical evidence are the product of chance, necessity (natural law), design, or a combination thereof.

Step 1 (observation): ID begins with observing that intelligent agents produce Complex and Specified Information (CSI). For example, if we see some random letters, ‘hdfmoSsDsxtYcbxpLQq,’ it looks complex but not specified. If we see the information ‘1212121212121212,’ it is specified but not complex. However, if we notice a piece of information, ‘I LOVE MY PARENTS,’ it is complex and specified. Step 2 (hypothesis): The ID theorists hypothesize that it would contain CSI if the natural object were designed. Step 3 (experiment): They perform experiments to see if they can find CSI. Examples of CSI include irreducible complexity (a purposeful arrangement of parts), fine-tuning parameters of the universe, DNA codes, etc. Finally, Step 4 (conclusion): When scientists find CSI through experiments, they conclude that such features were not the product of chance or natural law but were designed.^v

How to Detect Design?

There are multiple methods to detect design. Mathematician and philosopher William Dembski developed an empirical strategy to detect design in nature by using an ‘Explanatory Filter.’^vi There are three broad modes of explanation when trying to explain something: natural law (or necessity), chance, and design.^vii The ‘explanatory filter’ asks the following three questions about the thing one tries to explain: Is it contingent? Is it complex? Is it specified? If three questions can answer ‘yes,’ it filters out necessity and chance and infer design as the best explanation. If something is contingent, we may ascribe it to necessity. If something is contingent and complex, we may ascribe it to chance. But if something is contingent, complex, and specified, we must ascribe it to design. 

Dembski’s explanatory filter attempts to locate ‘specified complexities’ in the natural world, pointing to intelligent design. Philosopher Douglas Groothuis presents the structure of the design filter this way: 

1. X is either designed, or the result of chance, or the result of natural law, or the combination of chance and natural law.

2. X is not the result of chance or natural law or the combination of both.

3. Therefore: X is the result of design.^viii

The evidence for intelligent design comes from many areas of science, including physics, cosmology, paleontology, information theory, animal biology, systematics, genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, etc. The ID movement has a growing number of new scientific discoveries from different scientific fields. Although ID has been discovered in many fields, the major discoveries come from physics and cosmology, the origin of life, and biological complexity. I will address an example below.

DNA Information: Indicating Design

In his book, Information and the Origin of Life, biophysicist Bernd-Olaf Kuppers pointed out that ‘the problem of the origin of life is clearly basically equivalent to the problem of the origin of biological information.’^ix Since the late 1950s and 1960s, the origin of life researchers discovered that DNA contains large amounts of genetic information in the form of language. Atheist biologist Richard Dawkins writes, ‘biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.’^x Software developer Bill Gates said, ‘DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.’^xi

The living cell contains organic molecules, including proteins, DNA, RNA, lipids, and complex carbohydrates.^xii DNA contains the information necessary to specify the sequence of the proteins. Intelligent design begins with observing that intelligent agents can produce a large amount of complex and specified information (CSI). In his book, Signature in the Cell, philosopher of science Stephen Meyer points out three important properties which enable DNA to carry information.^xiii First, the subunits of DNA are like a four-letter alphabet (A, T, G, C) arranged like meaningful sentences that convey a particular message. Second, the information in DNA is extremely complex. Third, the information in the DNA is specified.^xiv

The information contents in the DNA are complex and specified. As I have presented earlier, specified complexity cannot be formed by chance or necessity (natural law). Therefore, intelligent design is the best explanation for the origin of specified complexity in DNA. I do not have space to deal with objections to the Intelligent Design Argument. 

Philosophical Implication: The Existence of God

Design points to a designer. Obviously, if something is designed, it has a theological implication to find out the designing agent. This requires further philosophical reasoning. The one who is committed to the discipline of philosophy (including me) takes the scientific data and uses reason to make a further argument for the designing agent. From multiple points of view, I would argue that the God of the Bible is the designing agent. This fits well with the biblical claim that God is the creator and designer of the universe. I do not have space to develop this here. Intelligent Design is one of the many arguments for the existence of God without appealing to the special revelation (Bible). In the next issue, I hope to write another argument for the existence of God to make the cumulative case even more robust. 

Recommendations:

For Intelligent Design material:  Discovery Institute’s, Center for Science and Culture, Seattle, Washington (www.discovery.org). 

For Science and Faith topic: Reasons to Believe, (www.reasons.org). 

ⁱ “What is Intelligent Design?” Intelligent Design. Accessed September 05, 2022. https://intelligentdesign.org/whatisid/

ⁱⁱ John G. West, “Intelligent Design and Creationism Just Aren’t the Same.” Discovery Institute. December 01, 2002). Accessed September 05, 2022, https://www.discovery.org/a/1329/ 

ⁱⁱⁱ “Intelligent Design.” New World Encyclopedia. Accessed September 06, 2022, https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Intelligent_design

^iv The Center for Science and Culture, “What is the Science Behind Intelligent Design,” Discovery, May 01, 2009, Accessed September 06, 2022, https://www.discovery.org/a/9761/

^v Casey Luskin, “Intelligent Design (ID) Has Scientific Merit Because it Uses the Scientific Method to Make its Claims and Infers Design by Testing its Positive Predictions,” Discovery Institute, September 8, 2008, Accessed September 06, 2022, https://www.discovery.org/a/7051/

^vi Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics, A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011), 244.

^vii William A. Dembski, The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 87.

^viii Groothuis, Christian Apologetics, 246.

^ix Bernd-Olaf Küppers, Information and the Origin of Life (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990), 170-72.

^x Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, (England: Penguin Books, 2006), 06.

^xi Bill Gates, The Road Ahead. Rev.ed. (New York: Viking, Penguin Group, 1996), 188.

^xii Jonathan Wells, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design, (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2006), 96.

^xiii Wells, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design, 96.