Why is it so hard to believe in "Intelligent Design"?

Question

Everybody out there has to have inquired at least once "Where did all this come from?" If you believe in evolution, explain where the "nothingness" that exploded and became somethingness came from. Futhermore, how can everything in the world live so harmoniously with everything else and be considered an accident?

In order to believe in evolution, or in (the scientific "paradox" that attempts to explain our universes' existence) a leap of FAITH is required. Faith is believing in something you can't see or prove undebateably with logical reasoning. Bottom line is YOU CAN"T PROVE EVOLUTION. There will always be loose ends waiting to be tied up. For instance my original question to all you scientific atheists of "where did the nothingness that became the somethingness come from?" was never answered, and I suppose it never will be. Another question is "Where is the homo erectus?" and why if monkeys still exist doesn't he? Like the first guy who answered my question said "this battle between ID and evolution have been going on a long time". My goal here is not to convert any of you, but rather to prove my originally intended point that it takes just as much "faith" to believe in evolution as it does to believe in ID! We are all stepping out on an obscure tree limb, attempting to explain the unknown.

Answer 1

QUESTION #1-- Why is it so hard to believe in "Intelligent Design"?: I suspect that many people want to believe in Intelligent Design, but they are reluctant to because a religion is usually attached to it. A lot of people are burnt out on religion, have had a very negative experience with it, see it as one of the world's greatest evils, or don't want anything to do with religion because it would interfere with their desire to control their own destiny. I also suspect that some of these people who desire to believe in Intelligent Design, probably do, but they haven't come out of the closet yet.

I would ask: Why does a person have to believe in either Intelligent Design or Evolution? Why can't a person believe that an intelligence created something from nothing which then resulted in the big boom, which the intelligence used to influence the results?

That's how I think it happened. But I still want to know where the original "Intelligent Design" came from. *Clears my throat* Camouflaging the word "God" with "Intelligent Design" doesn't change anything. We all know what you're getting at and it makes those who don't want to be involved in religion uncomfortable anyway, even with it all dressed up to look like something else. Good try though. ;)

QUESTION #2 -- Explain where the "nothingness" that exploded and became somethingness came from: Something must have been thought or spoken or intended into being by someone. Maybe "Intelligent Design" used Its finger or a drop of blood as the base ingredient for everything else. Either way, that would mean something akin to magic was used to create something from nothing.

QUESTION #3 -- How can everything in the world live so harmoniously with everything else and be considered an accident?: Not everything lives so harmoniously, it's just that the wars everything in nature are fighting serve a purpose, so to our narrow way of perceiving things, they appear to be living in harmony.

And just a little tidbit here for those who think this question does not belong in the philosophy genre: Most religions were founded in philosophy by philosophers.

Answer 2

Intelligent Design is nothing more than a poor attempt to disguise religion as science, this is why it's so hard to believe. ID, like most religions, is made out of a need to 'explain' everything in life. Scientists are willing to admit that they still cannot explain everything in the universe but many people, especially religious people cannot do this. They have to have some kind of explanation for everything and so they resort to religion.

At no time does science claim the world to be an accident, simply it declares life to be the result of factors that are not controlled by any force. Sure it's unlikely that life could start on a planet, but then the universe is infinitely large and so no matter how small the chance was, it has happened an infinite number of times.

Answer 3

Dear, you have such a great wonder for your young years, let us agree on key terms here, wither it was God, the Big Bang, evolution, or any other theories or creators, let us agree that non of whom reading this was there when it all had begun.

Having said that, let us do some reverse engineering to reach the beginning when existence existed! What was there before, and should it all end –the end of days, Armageddon, Quyama- call it whatever you want – what is going to happen after?

As for the harmony, it is an enigma; take the solar system, all the planets rotating around the sun since the beginning, and never a micron of a difference until the end! One could always keep banging his head to the wall or could switch to Autopilot and put everything to God! Good Luck…

Answer 4

When you say it takes a leap of faith to believe in evolution, I disagree. While religion itself is based on belief and faith, evolution is based on science. You saying it's a leap of faith to believe in evolution means it's also a leap of faith to believe in all the sciences that support it. If you technically think that is a leap of faith then so be it but that's just silly. I like to think my belief in evolution as a belief based on what the evidence has shown.

The problem with intelligent design is that people want it taught in science classes. This subject does not belong in a science class because it has some ill-fated arguements that completely make a mockery out of the science classroom. Irreducible complexity has been completely disproven as well as all the main arguements ID poses against evolution. It poses inaccurate questions and formulates untestable theories that attempt to desanctify evolution, rather than try and prove a point. Does that mean that ID is completely wrong? With the current approach, yes.

The existance of an intelligent designer or just plain God is a question that one can ask and answer for themselves outside of a science classroom. However, to refute evolution based on the arguments of ID is completely wrong and laughable, honestly. Evolution is based on the same sciences and principles that brought about air conditioning, automobiles, modern medication, electricity, and the internet to just name a few.

Is it hard to believe in God? No, I do and I am a biochemist. Is it hard to believe in evolution? It is when you only know what critics tell you, or if your expertise in modern sciences is very limited. You can believe in both, but too bad ID only tells you how evolution is wrong.

Answer 5

Intelligent design is not science. ID tries to be science - it just says that living systems' complexity is "irreducible" and is "therefore" explained by having been designed by an intelligent agent (God). But this is much like saying that because we can't observe the physical processes at the core of the galaxy, and prove they're 'just' physical, it must have a god in it. Just so! Nevermind that ID also fails to falsify any scientific theories.

Here's an interesting article that uses Mr Behe's own arguments to show why it's not scientific.
http://www.slate.com/id/2127052/
quote: "What makes ID infinite and unfalsifiable is its refusal to explain intelligent design. You send your kids to biology class to learn by what processes living things evolve. ID doesn't even try to answer that question."

If you believe in a creator-god, why can't you explain where that god "came from"? As far as the supposed "beginning of the universe" -- I'm a skeptic of the Big Bang theory, so I'm not going to touch your "something from nothing" question -- it makes no sense to me. But I don't just "believe in" evolution; I understand it. There is nothing about ID to understand ... it just has to be "believed." Everything lives *nearly* 'harmoniously' with everything else in a world where everything coevolved with everything else -- but the real world is constantly changing, and life evolving to adapt to those changes. Evolution does not suggest that the complexity we see is "an accident." It proposes the opposite, actually - that what we see is the result of an unintelligent process. You don't even have to be an atheist to understand and accept evolution. Evolution says *nothing* about the existence or non-existence of a god or creator. Science *can* say nothing on that topic.

Answer 6

Intelligent design is a means of demonstrating, by a certain system of convictions, why belief in the existence of a Creator is credible. One may disagree with this approach and still believe in the existence of God. In other words, the argument is not a necessary argument for God's existence. Further, the issue of causality is as old as philosophical inquiry itself, and though it is sufficient for some to demonstrate some ground for the existence of God, others find such arguments insufficient-- and some who do, are not rejecting the existence of God, but the nature of those arguments.

Certitude is one of the pre-occupations and pathologies of modernity. And this peculiar fixations is evident in the neuralgic debates which seek to "prove" God's existence or demonstrate that such "proofs" are inadequate. Even if God's existence could be irrefutably demonstrated by some kind of empirical evidence or some rational inference, a more significant question would have to be discerned as far as God's essential nature and intentions.

One can make prudential judgements in regards to these matters, and such judgements do not require an appeal to absolute certitude, (which is an illusion anyway.) In terms of arguments for God's existence, based upon design or causality, this is what folks are doing-- they are making prudential judgements. Sometimes those judgements demonstrate assent, others indicate dissent.

Answer 7

Seeing the universe as intelligently designed is fine and quite reasonable. However, to discuss the idea of an intelligent designer is an aspect of philosophy call metaphysics, not a part of science.

I believe the evolutionary model is the best one available for explaining the natural universe (its origin and process), but there is more to reality than the "natural."

Answer 8

Believing in intelligent design isn't at all difficult, unless a person simply is determined to not believe in it.

A lot of people are predisposed to disbelieve, mainly because the main alternatives offered involve angry, unbelievable, unadmirable, hateful, spiteful popular dieties.

They throw the baby out with the bathwater without examining the less obvious options.

Science has spent the past centuries sparring with a power-based religious oligarchy, attack-counter attack, dance, duck, dart.

That sparring match has become the preoccupation, both of doctrinal religion, and of science. The playing field's clearly defined by boundaries to leave much elbow room for anyone in science to give any ground on the issue of intelligent design.

Answer 9

Is everything living "harmoniously"?
-There are multiple wars going on
-We're destroying the environment which in turn is destroying the wildlife (and most people don't even admit it)
-There is hatred for people just being different
***We don't know what it was like everything was first created. Maybe it was pandemonium and everything has evolved out of survival.

I'm not an athiest. I just thought it was a weak arguement.

Answer 10

Intelligent Design is a con-trick, but you're not wrong in wondering about the beginning of the Universe. The answer to that is "paradox" but you'll have to figure out what I'm talking about for yourself - I have yet to meet anyone who could get their head around it.

Essentially, it is no more unlikely that dinosaur bones are all fake and the world really was created in 7 days than it is to believe that the Universe popped into existence from nowhere.

BUT, keep your feet on the ground: All the proponents of I.D are lying conmen so don't fall for it.