Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design has been in the news lately because of Creationists. The concept has been used by them to argue against Darwinism and evolution. Creationists say that there is definition and sophistication about the world that evolution alone cannot explain, because it is based on randomness and chaos. They ask, how could the erratic nature of evolution produce the order and complexity we see today? They believe that since there is such order all around us, from the length of a day to the orbits of the planets, that there must been a specific plan and a Creator behind it. Hence Creationists' religious belief in Intelligent Design.

The other day I read an article that said religious belief initially had nothing to do with the concept of Intelligent Design. Creationists have latched on to the idea to forward their own agenda, the article explained. Scientists noticed and commented on an intelligent design in nature long before religious types got a hold of it. They saw that nature had this ability to organize itself into something intelligent from pure chaos. James Gleick, in his book "Chaos", points to the ability of nature to create beautifully organized things out of its chaos without the suggestion that there is a Creator or God with a specific plan behind it.

I believe there is something inherent in nature that creates order out of chaos. The example I use to illustrate this is an experiment used in elementary science. You take a piece of paper and sprinkle iron filings on it. One sees a clump of iron filings on the paper, helter skelter. Next you rub a magnet underneath the paper and as you are watching a symmetrical design emerges. This is how the universe and the world developed, through similar magnetic forces that have worked on stuff flying around chaotically, bringing it together and organizing it.

Everything starts off like the "Wild Wild West" I like to say. First there is a chaotic, wild situation and them it gravitates to an orderly situation. The universe started off like the Wild Wild West. Civilization started of as the Wild Wild West. Democracy started that way. One thing more immediate that started off this way is the internet. Originally in started with no rules or specific order. Its first practitioners wanted it that way, free to find its own level. Part of the reason for this is that no one really knew what it was going to end up to be. Also, the first users of this fledging enterprise didn't wanted any one group imposing their own agenda on it. However, as the internet grew it found order as it expanded and adapted to change. The internet found its intelligent design by just being and out of the necessity to survive and continue.

On a primary level the Creationists are right, as scientists have pointed out, that there is an intelligent force organizing nature and humankind. We are all made of that intelligent stuff called DNA. However, on its own DNA is not very smart, only potentially. It has to engage external forces like the environment, nurturing and change to become something intelligible. Nothing is intelligent from the beginning. It took the long drawn out efforts of nature and time to create the intelligence we see today. It didn't happen with the wave of a wand, as Creationists tend to see it.
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