I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s History of Nearly Everything again. A thought popped into my head that the greatest creation is a thought or idea. It exists, but it is in no single place. Someday the human species will not exist. That may take a few more years, or (hopefully) many more years. Then the only thing that will be left of the species will be remnants on earth but also an expanding band of electromagnetic information only a few light years thick. centred on the sun. So, when the species is gone, all that will remain are the ideas and thoughts and of course the billions and billions of images from the countless years of broadcasting.
April 19, 2006
Last night I watched a documentary on the battle between the Darwinian theory of evolution and the new theory on the block - intelligent design. As I understand it Intelligent Design postulates that if you investigate something sufficiently deeply, and still can’t explain it, then the only solution is to call on an intelligent designer.
To me (science trained and a firm holder of Darwinism) intelligent design is nonsense. It had me picturing scientists working away slavishly in the lab for hours on end only to throw their hands up and say ‘We don’t know the answer, it must be intelligent design!’ Imagine if this had been the case centuries ago. Oh, that’s right, it was like that centuries ago!
We recognise that in the meantime we have discovered and clarified much. What was not understand then, at least is better understood now. So, if something now is not understood, it is totally illogical to claim the input of an intelligent designer. It is more logical to claim that there are some things we still do not understand, but we will continue to look into it using scientific methodology.