Please enjoy these highly magnified images of actual snowflakes.
Beautiful, are they not? Nearly perfect symmetry. No two alike. Truly, these little ice crystals are magnificent!
How these little wonders of nature are formed could almost be called miraculous. They are breathtakingly beautiful.
Surely, something this complex must have been designed. Otherwise, how could they possibly have such detail, symmetry, and organization?
This one is my personal favorite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake This link talks about the science of snowflake formation.
Intelligent design (ID) is the argument that the universe, as it exists, is far too complex to have happened naturally; therefore, it must have had a designer. The proponents of intelligent design claim that it is an actual accredited branch of science, which may or may not be true. The fact is, the scientific community largely recognizes Darwin's Theory of Evolution, although there are certainly some scientists who do not.
http://www.intelligentdesign.org/whatisid.php This is a link to a pro-ID website.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Intelligent_design This link appears to discuss ID quite thoroughly, sharing both sides of the argument.
I have provided these links so that I do not have to go into great detail about ID.
Intelligent design focuses primarily on living things. Since snowflakes are not living, those who support ID would immediately dismiss the arguments I am about to make. Take it as you will. This post is not meant to be a full scale rebuttal of ID, but simply to take an angle that perhaps has not yet been addressed.
Consider this quote from the second ID link above:
"Intelligent design cannot be inferred from complexity alone, since complex patterns often happen by chance."
I find this quote very interesting. Those who argue against evolution often love to state (in ignorance) how evolution is nothing but mere chance. While chance is a part of it, it is certainly just a part of it. Chance, it seems, is dismissed by the believers of ID when they are arguing for their cause, but it is their main argument against evolution! If "complex patterns often happen by chance," isn't that a great argument IN FAVOR of evolution?
Sorry, but you can't have it both ways. Chance is either part of the whole argument or it isn't.
Look at the intricate design of the snowflakes above. Those are some pretty complex patterns that have happened by complete chance. But they don't happen rarely. They happen trillions of times whenever it snows! They were not designed. They just happened. There is no DNA to guide their creation. It is completely random. Yet this randomness leads to something beautiful. Something organized. Something complex. This snowflake did not have a designer and yet there it is in all it's complexity, symmetry, and beauty.
If this random chance happens so frequently in nature, it is not much of a stretch to theorize that this could have also happened in biological systems. And even if the first living molecule only had a minuscule chance of randomly forming, it only had to happen once. It is not unreasonable to suggest that, in a 4 billion-year time period, it could have happened, if only just once.
It is clear that complex structures can and do form naturally without the guidance of a designer. There might be those who argue that each snowflake is orchestrated by some deity. Well, that designer certainly has a lot of spare time on his hands, not to mention some pretty confusing priorities!
Besides, it goes back to that old argument, if there was a designer, where did it come from? Did the designer also have a designer? A living, intelligent being capable of designing the universe must have come from somewhere. If it designed the universe, where did it live before that?
Intelligent design raises more questions than it answers. Typically, the believers in ID are also religious (although it is not a requirement) and, in my opinion, it is merely their attempt to reconcile their held superstitions against known scientific fact; in other words, take religion and call it science. And since it is science, it must have some credibility especially since a few real scientists believe in it!
Complex structures do form randomly in nature with no designer. This is an undisputed fact. While this doesn't completely disprove the ID theory, it certainly does not help their cause.
6 comments:
You will enjoy this article on how scientists created a self evolving circuit board. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2732-radio-emerges-from-the-electronic-soup.html#.Uvl4xYWPx8E
Another illustration that not only is it false to assume that only can patterns be created by ID but that evolution will will take the most practical/shortest path of least resistance and greatest stability. This is done not by design but by evolution which will weed out the weak connections in favor of the strongest. Survival of the fittest in circuitry!
Wow, very interesting article. I didn't understand most of it but how curious that a circuit board can evolve.
My personal favorite is the third one down.
My husband will argue that if there was ID there would have been a better design for the mouth. Its where we take in nutrition and breathe...which causes choking if done at the same time.
There are so many amazing things and so many flaws in nature. If there is a god he sure got lazy with some things and was pretty creative with others.
Now since evolution happened its all pretty damn amazing that we are even here.
Yes it is amazing. That being said, there are other "design" flaws as well. I have often marveled at how it could have come to be. Some systems are so amazing and it blows my mind how they could have come to be. It is so easy to give credit to god, but the truly miraculous is that it happened all on it's own.
Part 1: My comment was too long to post all at once, so I had to break it up. It originally read:
Wow, it's amazing how different people view things. Upon pondering the snowflake, I thought to myself for what purpose are they unique, beautiful and detailed? There is no purpose in them having any detail other than to be beautiful. Why would this be necessary? They seem so insignificant in that they disappear nearly instantly when picked up. Then I began to wonder why we even have taste buds. They are not required to get nourishment from food. Everything could be in black and white for that matter. So, I guess, I saw that there was beauty just for the sake of beauty, which doesn't seem to be something of evolution but that was just my thought.
Nevertheless, the only reason I decided to post, as I'm not a debater and will not respond to any other comments or responses, is because I am an ex-Jehovah's Witness. Now I realize it was nothing but a cult. To me, I don't see it as much different than Mormonism, as in I see them both as false religion.
However, where we differ is that I'm still a believer. I did come to realize the truth was not in any of those religions but I didn't lose faith. All I can share is my personal testimonial, which for the most part means nothing to anyone but me I guess.
Nevertheless, I have found "proof" for myself. It was simply a relationship with God through Jesus and nothing more complicated than that. I only came to realize that when I began studying for myself rather than just believing what some organization told me. I've come to learn that quite possibly only 1% of anything they teach is true or even biblical.
I went to Catholic school, had a Baptist family, looked into Mormonism and passed (thought they were nuts) and ended up a Jehovah's Witness. It was in none of that. Yet, I feel like you - my life is much better now than it was then but I still have a relationship with God.
My proof? I've been healed of leukemia without a single treatment, healed of trigeminal neuralgia, never had a prayer not answered, even had a vision when I was 7 years old that saved my life from a pedophile that was killing children in the area. I didn't even know what a vision was and kept that secret for 20 years because I was afraid to tell my parents for fear they wouldn't believe me. Evolution doesn't explain those experiences. Nor does it explain the actual presence of God a real Christian experiences. I even have dreams that tell me the future. This has been going on for years.
Part 2:
I assure you I am educated and have never done drugs, LOL. All this to say, I never experienced any of this when I was involved in DENOMINATIONS. I am now non-denominational. That's when things changed. I was indeed bitter, and felt stupid, after falling for that JW mess. As a matter of fact, they tend to prey on the intellectual. My mistake was I believed what they told me without looking for myself. Rather, they mix the truth with the lie so well it's hard to discern the difference. However, I did find there was a God, just not how they described Him.
All in all, that's my experience and may mean nothing but I identified with leaving an organization. All those feelings from many years rushed back and I realized how blessed I have become. I'd be dead if there really was no God. Not only that, my life wouldn't be worth living with cancer and constant pain.
It has been said everyone believes in something, whether it be evolution or otherwise. The thing is people don't need to find a way to explain God away. They simply can say, "I choose not to believe in Him," and that's good enough. That's their choice. No need to debunk God. It can't be done as long as there are people who have real godly experiences. No one will ever be able to take away what I've experienced since leaving that "religion." Too many "miracles" have happened for me, my family and others like me. People simply need to have what I call a key experience.
I would simply say there are too many falsehoods and lies in many denominations which hinders a real relationship with God, let alone the outright cults. Catholicism itself is decayed Christianity. They hold many unbiblical beliefs while they claim to be the true church. They don't represent Christians very well at all. They will argue until their dying breath they are the church Jesus founded all the while praying to Mary when the bible clearly says she can't hear your prayers. I guess.
In the end, people will have faith or they won't. Still in Romans 1:20 it says, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Ultimately, people will try to explain God away but it still says they will be without excuse. But, of course, it makes no sense to quote the bible to those that don't believe anyway.
I was just simply sharing my slightly common experience.
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