Design Argument

Intelligent Design (ID) holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. It is, in effect, a commitment to minimal causation in the universe, and many articles on this web site describe the scientific argument for design in Nature. However, ID is simply a modern expression of the design argument which scientists, philosophers and theologians have elaborated over many centuries. What is frequently overlooked is that the great pioneers of modern science - like Copernicus, Kepler, Ray, Linnaeus, Curvier, Agassiz, Boyle, Newton, Maxwell, Kelvin, Faraday, Rutherford – subscribed to design in nature. Another name commonly associated with the design argument is William Paley (1743–1805) English clergyman, Christian apologist, and philosopher. He argued that just as a watch needs a watchmaker, so a universe needs a universe-maker. While that is a legitimate argument for design, it is based on analogy. The modern ID argument is not based on analogy but on actuality – the elements for design are apparent in Nature. ID arises from what we know, not from what we don’t know.