Intelligent design a more complicated notion of faith

By Richard Morgan

I was just wondering, regarding the debate between proponents of the theory of evolution and those of intelligent design, whether the latter have considered a basic assumption upon which they seem to be basing their case. That is that we humans have the ability to recognize an outside "intelligence" behind what appears to be "design" for the origin and life and "species." Apparently, because we are intelligent beings ourselves, we are able to identify the "cause" of how life came to be because it matches our notion of what "intelligent" looks like. In fact, we take the assumption one step further and declare that life must have been intelligently designed because there simply can be no other way of explaining how it came to be. Life just looks so ... well, intelligent.

Having been raised Christian, I was often admonished, when I was trying to make sense out of things I didn't understand, "not to question the mind of God" because divine logic is not answerable to that of humans. In other words, a lot of stuff that happens is simply the "will of God" and not to be challenged by human deductive reasoning. I was encouraged to look upon such acceptance as a virtue called "faith."

Now, I'm willing to accept the likelihood that a divine intelligence is way out of my league. What I don't get, however, is the dual position that I'm being asked to take. On one hand, when it comes to the origin of life, an outside intelligence has made its designs both recognizable and understandable to us, but when it comes to other matters, we are to adopt quite a different stance, that of faith. In other words, as someone once told me, "Never mind that you don't understand, because God knows what He is doing."

Well, wait just a gosh darned minute. When it comes to the origin of life, my mind is capable of seeing its intelligent design, but not when it comes to making intelligent sense out of almost everything else in life? Heck, if I can see the divine intelligence in the design of life, why isn't it just as obvious in every other part of life unfolding around us? Where's the intelligence behind 175,000 deaths due to a tsunami, or the starvation of millions of children in Africa, just for starters? Even the Bible itself: Does it seem intelligently designed? How can it be wrong for me to ask such questions while being aware that an "intelligent" divinity shows little interest in the wealth accumulation, power brokering, hypocrisy, inconsistencies and shameful behavior of so many "religious" leaders? If some folks really want intelligent design taught in schools, they'd better make ready for a lot more questioning than they're bargaining for. They'd be better off just sticking to the notion of faith. It's a whole lot easier to swallow.

(Morgan lives in Napa.)