The Design Argument

Was the universe designed, or could it have been chance? And could there be a God if there are problems with the design?

5 min read

The Design Argument

A Simple Argument

If you saw a watch on the pavement, you would know that it was designed by something with a mind—specifically, a human. The universe, being infinitely more magnificent than a watch, was then clearly designed.

You can see the evidence for yourself, if you look with humility: The wind carries the seed from the trees and dries our clothes. The rain waters the crops and washes away filth, and there are plants that produce everything from delicious food to excellent materials for clothing.

To get a bit more sciency, our moon not only lights the night sky but keeps Earth on a stable axis with its great size, and the Sun, which appears the same size as the moon from Earth, has the perfect luminosity to keep Earth's temperature stable. Unlike Mars, the land on our planet is not all desert. Finally, matter is stable, instead of popping out of existence at random and appearing suddenly.

Information

NASA firmly believes that a pattern which clearly represents information in radiowaves coming from deep space would prove there is intelligent life sending it. How ironic is it that every cell in our bodies is packed with information, yet those same scientists conclude that the information somehow got there by chance?

Animals

As we focus on work, friends, and hobbies, we can lose sight of what the world is like. That is why I would like to remind you about some of the wonders of the life in the world.

Bat sonar is absolutely incredible. They can emit up to 200 clicks per second, and tiny muscles can close off the ear before they click to prevent the bat from deafening itself. This ability of theirs allows them to “see” well enough to catch flying insects in midair.

Elephants have trunks powerful enough to rip up trees, yet with the tip of the trunk, one of them can pick up a blade of grass.

Octopus can change colour and even texture to blend in with their environment in real time, squeeze through tiny holes, learn quickly, walk, and even regrow a lost arm!

An octopus camouflaging itself on coral Can you spot the octopus?

Mistakes In the Design?

Some say that a designer with the power of God would have done better. After all, why aren't we impervious to damage and ageing, etc.? However, without knowing what the designer intended, how could you know whether he fell short or created things exactly as he intended? How do you know that difficulties and death are not part of the program, at least for now? (Although you ought to consider the possibility that He has told people something about His plans and look into it.)

In the Christian view, Satan has been allowed to rule on the Earth until Christ returns, so it is no surprise that much of creation appears damaged.

Chance and Fine-Tuning

Many scientists are involved in a never-ending endeavour to show that a mind was not behind the universe, chance was. No matter how much evidence stacks up to the contrary, they will not accept it—and the evidence is stacked. They now all accept that there are unfathomably long odds for all the factors in our universe lining up as they do to allow life, but they still grope for reasons why this fine-tuning is not what it appears to be.

Finely tuned parameters from physics include gravity, the strong and weak nuclear forces (all for several reasons), and the cosmological constant. One mathematician (Roger Penrose) has estimated that the probability of the low initial state of entropy at the Big Bang being what it supposedly was is 1 in 10^(10^123). That is a tremendous number. It is 1 followed by 10^123 zeros. Penrose says in Emperor’s New Mind: 'Even if we were to write a "0" on each separate proton and on each separate neutron in the entire universe—and we could throw in all the other particles as well for good measure—we should fall far short of writing down the figure needed.'

In response to the staggaring fine-tuning displayed in the universe, atheistic scientists literally have no recourse except fantasy. That is why the multiverse theory is popular among scientists. It is either that every possible form of existence is present always, or many universes are generated by a universe generator. A universe generator would still need fine-tuning, so it is irrelevant. As to the former, we do not have every possibility existing at once, because then countless things would need to occupy the same space and time, so they would interfere with one another. That is senseless. (And we are not talking about the premise on science fiction TV shows where multiple universes exist but are different in some way so that they don't interfere. For every possibility to be realised, every possible form of our very universe needs to exist at once, and our universe is in a particular spot.)

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