'Darwin's Doubt': Intelligent design and evidence-based faith
When Stephen C. Meyer's book, Darwin's Doubt, was released in 2013, it provided “a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis on the massive scientific evidence revealing the total failure of the neo-Darwinian explanation for life's history” (Dr. Matti Leisola).
New York Times bestselling author George Gilder wrote, “I spend my life reading science books. I've read many hundreds of them over the years, and in my judgment Darwin's Doubt is the best science book ever written. It is a magnificent work, a true masterpiece that will be read for hundreds of years.”
And Dr. Russell Carlson wrote, “Meyer demonstrates, based on cutting-edge molecular biology, why explaining the origin of animals is now not just a problem of missing fossils, but an even greater engineering problem at the molecular level ... An excellent book and a must read.”
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Dr. Tom Woodward wrote, “Stephen Meyer's book is a much-anticipated bombshell that details the swarm of problems of Darwinian evolution and also presents the case for intelligent design. Ask yourself: how often does a book of this kind receive a warm welcome from leading geneticists and paleontologists? Never, until now!”
Sir Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. Hoyle famously said, “The chance that higher life forms might have emerged through evolutionary processes is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the material therein.” Just think how much blind faith is required to believe something so preposterous!
Hoyle also said, “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics.”
Stephen Meyer was asked in a recent interview if he believes the Darwin theory fails. He said, “I think it does fail ... Even Richard Dawkins acknowledges we have no chemical evolutionary theory that accounts for the origin of the first life. And many people don't know that Darwin didn't even attempt to explain the origin of the first life ... the main mechanism of evolutionary change does a nice job of explaining small-scale variation, (i.e. Darwin's finches) but it does a very poor job of explaining the major innovations in the history of life, such as the origin of birds or mammals or animals in the first place.”
Meyer also said, “The idea of natural selection acting on random mutations and variations is now understood to lack the creative power to generate major changes in the history of life. Bill Gates said that DNA is like a software program, but much more complex than anything we have ever devised.” The DNA evidence for intelligent design is overwhelming and is quite easily perceived by anyone with an open mind.”
Meyer said, “When scientists and philosophers reason from evidence they typically use a method of reasoning that has a technical name — it's called 'inferring to the best explanation,’ where the best explanation is one where you're invoking a cause which has the kind of powers that would be required to explain the phenomenon of interest ... when you get back to what physicists call the ‘singularity,’ the point where matter, space, time and energy begin to exist, the materialist is really up against a huge conundrum, because prior to the origin of matter, there is no matter to do the causing ... you need to invoke something that is external to the material universe, and is not bounded by time and space as well. And that starts to paint the picture of the kind of cause you would need, the sort of attributes the traditional theists have associated with God.”
Casey Luskin from the Discovery Institute provides powerful evidence for design in his article, “The Top Six Lines of Evidence for Intelligent Design.”
1. The origin of the universe.
2. The fine-tuning of the universe.
3. The origin of information in DNA and the origin of life.
4. The origin of irreducibly complex molecular machines.
5. The origin of animals.
6. The origin of humans.
In addition to the evidence for intelligent design, fulfilled Messianic prophecies provide historical and mathematical validation equally as stunning. In my 2013 CP op-ed, “The Mathematical Proof for Christianity is Irrefutable,” I shared that the probability of Jesus of Nazareth fulfilling just 8 prophecies is 1 in 100 quadrillion. Since you owe it to yourself to accept evidence even when it contradicts your preconceived notions, I encourage you to check out, “The Top 40 Messianic Prophecies.”
The amount of blind faith required to accept Darwinian evolution is stupefying. And so, it comes as no surprise that many people choose to adopt evidence-based faith instead. In my CP op-ed, “How Far Can Apologetics Take a Non-Christian,” I describe a 50-mile trip along various roads leading to the door of a castle. Upon arrival, you are invited to walk through the castle door and enter into a relationship with the Creator of the universe. Jesus said, “I am the door. Whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9).
Have you closed your mind and hardened your heart to the reality of God's existence, as well as to the idea that God loves you and wants to forgive your sins and spend eternity with you in Heaven? If your mind is open to considering Christianity rationally and without prejudice, then check out my 2015 CP op-ed, “40 Questions to Determine the True Religion.”
Darwinian evolution is dead. And blind faith in a dead theory is nonsensical. Christian faith, on the other hand, is rooted in historical events foretold hundreds of years earlier. God gave you the cognitive ability to follow the evidence all the way to the castle door. And the Holy Spirit will convert your soul the moment you trust the Savior to wash away your sins. (see John 3:1-21) Jesus preached, “Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15).
Will you humble yourself at the foot of the cross, or has your impressive IQ led you to arrogantly assume you are smarter than the One who designed your intellect in the first place?
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.
