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Aug. 25, 2006 The best way to know a designer is to know his design. So I give you the following synopsis which was inspired by the book "Small Things Considered" by Henry Petroski, 2003, published by Alfred Knopf, a division of Random House. We can look at all the objects that we have invented and be amazed by their design. The two prominent factors that define design are form and function. In other words, the best designs serve a practical purpose as well as being aesthetically attractive. However, no matter how well something is designed, there is always room for improvement. There is no such thing as a perfect door or a perfect house or a perfect car, or anything else because there will always be someone who doesn't like a particular characteristic of the object in question. That's because choices are made according to the value placed on them and so choice is always constrained and choice always requires compromise. There may even be a design flaw that the original builders overlooked until someone else pointed it out to them. Keeping all this in mind and with thanks to Mr. Petroski for getting the ball rolling, let's turn our attention to the natural world. Since it was not designed by humans, can we assume it is perfect? This question is designed to be a leading one. I am purposefully setting you up to consider the credibility of the concept of "intelligent design." This idea was proposed several years ago by Michael Behe in his book "Darwin's Black Box." He goes to great lengths to demonstrate that the mathematical probability of the universe organizing itself into a viable system is too huge to have happened by chance. Behe and others insinuate that the universe and its contents are so perfect that they must be the product of intelligent design. Immediately this calls into question the character of the designer. In human terms we can accept the fact that even the most brilliant inventor among us can make mistakes. After all, nobody's perfect. But can this trait be acceptable in a supreme intelligence? Can God make mistakes? A devout religious person would scoff at the idea. Theologians wold shudder and pastors, priests and rabbis the world over would chastise anyone who even mentioned it. Yet the lack of perfection is not limited to human inventions. There is no perfect tree, no perfect mountain range, no perfect river, no perfect animal, no perfect star cluster, no perfect galaxy and we are certainly not living in a perfect universe. But if there were a perfect God, wouldn't his creations also be perfect? This question leads us to an inevitable conclusion. Since design is a direct reflection of the character of the designer, and we know that there is no perfect design then the concept of a perfect designer is false. This is also true of nature. If there were a grand, intelligent designer, his character and credibility would be questioned by the imperfections in his design. Since God cannot be God unless he is perfect, an imperfect God would be a contradiction in terms so we must conclude that there is no God. ------------ About the author: Keith Cantrell lives in a small town in Oregon where he was a fundamentalist, born-again, evangelical Christian for over 35 years. After many years of questioning and research he has finally become an agnostic. He has written a book entitled "The World's Most Dangerous Book" and it tells the history and origins of the Bible. It's the only book on the market that takes the Bible from cover to cover, Genesis to Revelation and explores who wrote it, where it came from and how it all got put together. It's the 21st century. Isn't it time you knew the truth about the Bible? This book is available at Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks and Amazon.com. Read it and tell me what you think! After all, I could be wrong! Email: kwcantrell@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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