Designed or not designed?
It looks like a simple machine that imitates the basic mechanics of the human body. It has some of the features that we expect from an engineer, like gearwheels and drive belts.
Whatever it is, clearly it had a designer – there is a concept behind it, it is not something that could have been thrown together by accident.
Digital Storm/shuttterstock
The real thing
The human body, as drawn here by Leonardo da Vinci, is clearly far more complex than the crude diagram above, and shows every evidence of expert design. But many tell us we are not allowed to make the same common sense deduction. The human body, we are told with weighty authority, was not designed – it is the result of a series of accidents over millions of years, a process known as evolution.
Isn't that strange?
Does this idea really stand up to critical examination?
Is there another far more reasonable and positive explanation?
The Challenge
Humans have been designing things for as long as we have existed, something that distinguishes us from other animals. We understand the design process (see DESIGN), and we recognise the clues which tell us whether something has been designed or not.
The natural world presents us with an abundance of such clues (see GALLERY), and most scientists are happy to accept them, and agree that nature "appears" to have been designed.
But here is the challenge:
Does the "appearance of design" require us to accept a supreme Creator and Designer, or is there some other explanation?
In this world that we have created for ourselves, most people, scientists or otherwise, have rejected the argument for creation – God, they feel, is an unnecessary and intolerable restraint on their personal freedom. The design evidence is rejected, on the grounds that there is another process which can simulate the evidence for design, whilst denying the Designer.
That process is evolution, or the upgrade to Darwin's theory called Neo-Darwinism. So much of our modern world is founded on this theory, and it is widely regarded as gospel truth. But all is not well on the evolutionary front.
Many of those most closely involved believe it needs a drastic rethink.
The search is on for another, more soundly-based theory to replace it.
GALLERY Looks at a number of outstanding examples of design in the natural world, and examines whether evolution offers a credible explanation.
Design Looks at the design method, and contrasts it with the proposed process of evolution.
Faith Are faith and science incompatible? The quality of faith itself has been derided – what is true faith? Does the theory of evolution itself demand faith?
About Tells you something about myself and my experience.
Quotes Surprising words from scientists.
References Reliable, up-to date and authoritative sources of information.
The Great Design The promise – an amazing climax to the human story.
We do not use cookies on this website. We do not collect any of your personal details, and our list of subscribers is not shared with any third party.
Intelligence and purpose in the natural world
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.