Since the 'Argument from Design' was laid to rest 150 years ago or so, why do people still try to use it?

Question

When Darwin showed that living organisms are the product of an unthinking natural process, that put paid to the Argument from Design - it is no longer possible to look at a living organism and say "it looks like it's designed, therefore there must be a designer". The funny thing is, I still see people trying to resurrect this long-discredited argument as a proof of god, and making themselves look a little foolish in the process. Why do they do this? You would think that people would look for something better, more sophisticated, less easy to debunk.

Granny: That's precisely why the origin of all things can't be something infinitely more complex and advanced than the things you're trying to explain. The root of all existence can only be random and uncaused events. All else is illogical.

Answer 1

Just because one person claimed the teleological argument was invalid 150 years ago does not mean it is no longer a valid argument. Let me give you the argument:

* Every design has a designer
* The universe [appears to have|has] a highly complex design
* Therefore, the universe has a designer

The argument -is- logically sound, you cannot deny that. Every body agrees that every design has a designer. Where we come into conflict is whether the universe has a design. That is where we start giving evidence for what we believe. You can either accept or deny evidence.

Darwin is not an infallible, all-knowing man. What he said could be wrong. The argument from design therefore is still not laid to rest.

I agree with him that microevolution is possible, as it has been observed. I do not agree with him that macroevolution is possible, because it is a process that has never been observed to happen.

Granny Annie brought up a good point: Even if one can "explain away" God from the origin of species, one still has to explain how the stuff of life came into existence in the first place. One might say the Big Bang. But then, what started off the big explosion? and where did that point of matter come from? Since the universe is finite and limited, it cannot exist eternally in the past as well as in the future.

This begs the question: who made everything? It's just much simpler to deduce that God was the first cause of the universe than to believe that the universe is eternal, had been Big Banning and Crunching for trillions of years, and our universe just so happened to have the right amount of molecules spinning about to form the solar system, causing life to evolve, all by random chance.

Answer 2

If you do some research you will find that Evolution is still a theory. It has never been proved right and everyone of there arguments can be knocked down by just using scientific evidence. You don't need to read the bible to see that some intelligent being, God, created the universe. Just do some research on different things in the universe take the human body for example brush up on your biology. See how the eye works, how the nervous system transfers signals to your brain, read on how the brain functions.
When you are done with that read up on your astronomy. Remember in high school you teacher talking about how the Earth is just the right distance from the sun, any closer we would burn up and any farther we would freeze. Read about how space has no end, there is no brick wall at the end of the universe that says "this is the end" space goes on FOREVER! It has no beginning and no end. If you think about it its mind boggling. The whole universe is put together like clockwork it is perfect. There is a very good book written by Ray Comfort called "God doesn't believe in Atheists. It will answer many questions that you have. However the ultimate book that you should read is the Bible. This will show you who God is, His love for us, and most importantly how he came to save us from our sins.

Answer 3

Look deeper. If intelligent design is supposed to be the self-evident truth, then why has the 'theory' only recently come about?

It is not supportable as a theory in itself and it's purpose is to discredit evolutionism. ID is based upon disproving something else, which is why it cannot ever be supportable.

Answer 4

Darwin showed his foolishness when he tried to prove what he did not prove. All he done was prove the beauty and wonder of living organisms,nevertheless, People that believe God created all are not foolish, we just know the beauty of his creation, and it makes it even more beautiful knowing one day will will get to see the Great creator! People have minds of their own and they think what they want I just believe and know that God is the Creator for all. There is nothing better or more sophisticated than God. I feel safe in saying that he deserves all the glory and praise for all he does, creation was just the start of all he does and continues to do.

Answer 5

I'd like to hear more, about uncaused events. My observations confirm that all events have at least two causes. Can you demonstrate an uncaused event? That would be a miracle, so to speek...

Answer 6

Evolution doesn't add up HOWEVER, the bible seems to be interpreted by savages the way it is today.
Darwin admitted the human eye couldn't have happened by chance. This does not leave us with creation as the only explanation. As you probably know, Genesis was taken from Summerian texts.
In the original depiction it is clear that the gods were evolved beings from another world.
There are details of all the planets, starting from Pluto, suggesting they came from outside our system, but thats not even the stunning part. They had knowledge such as we acquired from the 1980's, when Voyager visited them closely.

I have no doubt our genitors were "alien". And other readings which explain the works of life and existence, tell that the universe is infinite in time and space, making intelligent life a perpetual eternal occurance.

Answer 7

because we believe that we were created by God, the Designer of all things. . . :-)

the complicated designs of an organism - from the biggest object seen to the minutest particle - is truly a proof of genius. an unthinking natural process would not have made such extricate designs. .

if truly an unthinking natural process was the origin of everything in the world, then we should have seen other organisms made through this process in our time. . . but, no. . . all we see are beautifully designed creatures from a truly thinking Creator. . .

:-)

Answer 8

Got a news flash for ya, podner.

All Darwin's theory did was remove the origin one step back.
Where did the basic building blocks come from? Ahhh, you say. From the primordial ooze. And where did THAT come from? From the adherence to the Laws of Physics which govern the formation of planets. And where did THOSE Laws come from? ??? ... I'm waiting.

Btw, ask a mathematician about "random chance" sometime. The honest ones will tell you that random chance is a mathematically impossible explanation for the observed and real phenomenon of random chance.

Answer 9

It reminds me of Arguement from Incredulity. "Because I can't comprehend how and haven't looked into it, a god must have done it." With even more ignorance, you could have proof of god every time an elevator door opened.

Answer 10

I agree with you...the problem is, if they understood basic biology and genetics, they wouldnt be mad enough to refute the idea that we have an evolutionary past..apart from Michael Behe that is....though he's just grasping at straws and ignored a large chunk of science with his "theory"