SATURDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2012
Here is my cursory opinion on “creation”, evolution, and “intelligent design”. Like any reasonable opinion, it is open to debate and counter-arguments.
I don’t believe the development of life on Earth was a series of random events. I believe there was some form of intelligence behind the earliest forms of life.
I further believe the creation mythology propagated by institutionalised religions serves the same purpose as it did two and three and four thousand years ago. Something that can form part of people’s integrated world views must explain the origin of life. The creation story provides followers of these religions with exactly that.
Nevertheless, I believe it is highly unlikely that life forms developed without … some form of intelligence.
Finally, I believe even the efforts of learned people to explain the development of early life forms is comparable to the type of conversation that Org the Cave Man might have had with his cousin about the sun and the stars 10,000 years ago. Even if Org and his cousin had command of adequate vocabulary, the data available to them was incomplete – to put it academically.
Of course, as it is with more things than many people are willing to admit, language plays a crucial role in this matter. What exactly do people mean when they say “intelligence” or “intelligent”? What do people mean by “design”? And what exactly is meant by “random event”?
The good news? There is a strong possibility that we’ll develop a better understanding of things in the next couple hundred years – as long as our minds remain open, and the conversation is kept going.
Read more:
Intelligent Design Creationism: Fraudulent Science, Bad Philosophy.
Evolution vs. Intelligent Design: 6 Bones of Contention
____________________