Intelligent Design Or…?

Hmmm… I wonder who it was that decided to toss the word “or” into the equation? Now admittedly, I skim (and sometimes rather quickly) through a lot of articles and news items on the web and in various other publications but you’d think that somewhere along the line I would have stumbled across the guy’s name that chose to use the word “or”. Guess I just out and out missed it.

Just in case you’ve been hiding in a cave for the past year or so, I’m referring to the fuss that has been created by the assumption that we are required to make a choice between evolution and intelligent design. Well just between you and me, I think we’re out of control on this one. No, not ALL of us of course. But just enough of us to make it annoying to the rest of the population.

Here’s Gene’s view on this whole situation.

Evolution happens. Both naturally and through the efforts of humans. Genetic structure changes to produce living “things” different from what they were before. You don’t need to look far to validate this. Changes in genetic structure (evolution) have produced antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, disease-resistant crops and new varieties of plants, flowers and animals. Evolution has helped create a marvelous variety of living things wonderfully adapted to living in a particular environment. Yep, survival of the fittest! Cool…

You’ll notice that nowhere in the previous paragraph did I mention that evolution is remotely associated with the concept that “man” evolved from monkeys. Uh… we’ve moved way past that concept folks, so let it go.

Creationism and intelligent design. Even though a bunch of folks feel – and maybe with some justification – that the term “intelligent design” is a sneaky way of talking about creationism, in my opinion they are two completely different concepts. The way I see it, creationism is the belief that God – a specific entity who provides the foundation for numerous religions – purposefully and with planning, created each and every living thing. If it’s alive, God did it – and without any type of outside or “natural” influence.

Intelligent design (to me anyway) implies an orderly universe – a logical, orderly creation with a dash of chaos added just to keep us on our toes. Whether I’m looking at the physical universe with its countless galaxies or thinking about sub-atomic particles, I am amazed that any of this even exists. When I view life of any type, my brain quivers at the complexity of the design of this living plant or creature. Could any of this exist without the influence of some type of intelligence – some amount of purpose and order? I seriously doubt it.

I have come to believe therefore, that within the purposeful (intelligent) design of this universe of which we all are a part, the effects of evolution have played a major role. We’re not looking at a choice between intelligent design and evolution. We’re simply looking at these two concepts working together to create this wonderful, and frequently silly, existence.

One last thing. A lot of the discussion of intelligent design versus evolution has focused on efforts to maintain a distinct separation of church and state. In my opinion, our founding fathers showed a lot of common sense when they designed a government capable of functioning outside the control of any religious organization. And it seems to make sense too, that our government should have no ability to control our religious beliefs. The key word in the last two sentences is “control”. I seriously doubt these smart people ever considered the possibility that someday a segment of our society would get so picky as to try to prevent the discussion – or even mention – of any religious concepts in our schools. Maybe I should start a movement to try to prevent even vague references to any form of government or elected officials within religious organizations. Nah, we humans are silly enough without my adding fuel to the fire. I think I’ll go do something productive instead – like check my belly button for lint…

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