The battle between LOVE and DESIGN

"The intelligent design movement belittles God. It makes God a designer, an engineer," said Vatican Observatory Director George Coyne, an astrophysicist who is also ordained. "The God of religious faith is a god of love. He did not design me."

This statement comes with agreement with Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005) United States federal court judge John E. Jones III’s ruling that intelligent design is not science and is essentially religious in nature.

Hmm…God didn’t design you George? Well let me try to understand what you mean.


God didn’t DESIGN→

• To conceive or fashion in the mind; invent: design a good excuse for not attending the conference.

• To formulate a plan for; devise: designed a marketing strategy for the new product.


• To plan out in systematic, usually graphic form: design a building; design a computer program.


• To create or contrive for a particular purpose or effect: a game designed to appeal to all ages.


• To have as a goal or purpose; intend.

• To create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner.

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YOU…He
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LOVE[s] →

1. A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.


2. A feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person with whom one is disposed to make a pair; the emotion of sex and romance.


3. An intense emotional attachment, as for a pet or treasured object.


4. A person who is the object of deep or intense affection or attraction; beloved. Often used as a term of endearment.


5. An expression of one's affection: Send him my love. (George)

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YOU

I took an astrophysics class last year and I went to an intelligent design seminar last semester…and I’m not going to lie, I still don’t understand half of it and won’t even pretend I’m an expert at discussing the intricacies of either concept, but to give you some background:

Intelligent design is the concept 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.”

Creationism is the origin belief that humans, life, the Earth, and the universe were created by a supreme being or deity's supernatural intervention.

I understand the disagreement between these two schools of thought, yet I still don’t completely understand the disagreement between design and love that George Coyne is referring to. So a loving God wouldn’t design us, he would just create us. Doesn’t any type of creation warrant some form of design, whether it is human or supernatural? In fact, I’d like to think that I was designed…and evolve like a potter would design and shape his clay. Would that make humans less lovable creatures? Maybe George is just upset because he isn't very pretty.


Ok...this just isn't fair, we all have a nic fit time and again.



Apparently I will be smited for that last picture.

After that digretion...think about this verse:

"Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel." - Jeremiah 18:2-6

From what I understand, intelligent design seems to be in between creationism and evolution. Evolutionists argue that it is not testable, has no new hypothesis, and hasn’t found any facts suitable to warrant further inquiry and to make it an addition to school curriculum. Intelligent design is called “creationism in a tuxedo.” How selfish are we to think that we can even begin to understand the ins and outs of God’s creation.

But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? - Romans 9:20-21

Argue to no end, theorize, speculate, wonder, guess, hypothesize, presume, estimate, question, and marvel.

Darwin himself stated “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”

We are living in an expanding universe (Hubble measurements) and thus a common starting point and inevitable collapse of the universe are within sight of scientists and creationists alike. Both concepts have a beginning and an end. The world is full of irreducible complexity, complications, and questions. Are we really spending time asking the right questions? While I think it is important for some people to understand Christianity better because of its ability to answer scientific questions, what will be left to ask God when we get to heaven?

Is evolutionary theory the integrating theme of biology today? Yes. Is it also just that…a theory? Yes. Is the evidence overwhelming? Yeah, I would say so. Can it be disproven? Any theory can…with facts.

He may not be an organ, but I don’t know anything more complex than God.


I think I will save this question for later and have a cookie, because sometimes I think that facts just aren’t good enough anyways. For example:

• I always swim directly after eating large meals and never get cramps.
• Electricity supposedly kills people in excessive amounts, yet some are impervious to Tazers.
• The Ronald Reagan ‘Star Wars’ armament program never made any X-Wings OR Tie Fighters
• Men in glass houses clearly don’t sink ships.
• The world hates America…home of Chuck Norris (6 time undefeated World Middle Weight Karate Champion)
• I grew up in a house with five women, and I’m completely straight (I don't even pop the collar)
  
• It is clearly not that easy to grow up in the suburbs. (Vanilla Ice)
  

That this 'design' is intelligent, that is readily observable...but not by reading any of the above statements.


Don't be afraid for tomorrow, God is already there.