Intelligent Design
I am a scientist, but the theory of intelligent design has always made a lot of sense to me. I'm not exactly a firm believer in creation science, but I do believe that there are some things about the universe that are hard to explain without the presence of a god. It almost seems like things are too perfect here. The planets rotate the Sun in an orderly fashion, the Earth is at the right temperature with just the right mix of gases and elements to sustain life, and the cosmological constants are all within the crucial range that allows matter to correctly cohere and form stable shapes.
What I can't figure out for the life of me is why intelligent design is controversial. I'm not saying that everyone should believe it. It is totally alright with me if you believe that the universe is all a series of coincidences brought about by evolution. Charles Darwin was a brilliant man, and perhaps he was right. Nonetheless, there is nothing scientifically flawed about the theory of intelligent design. Science certainly can't disprove it. Even if it is never accepted as a legitimate scientific theory, I can't really understand why that should lead to arguments.
I think part of the problem stems from a confusion of terms. Intelligent design is not a traditional scientific theory because it doesn't lie within the domain of the scientific method. It may be a perfectly reasonable theory, and it might even be correct, but it is not scientifically falsifiable. You can't prove that God exists no matter how hard you try. There is a chance that the universe is a coincidence since there are no other universes we have access to to compare with ours. It is not like you can look at examples of a random universe and a universe created by a God and decide which one our universe resembles most. The very idea is absurd.
One of the other difficulties with looking at intelligent design from the perspective of science is that we don't know how many other universes there are. It is possible that the reason we are here in this particular universe asking these questions about creation and divine intelligence is because, out of billions of universes, this is the only one randomly able to sustain intelligent life. I recognize that there are many arguments for intelligent design, and I respect them, but I don't think there is a flaw with teaching the theory of random evolution as well. After all, no one can say for certain how the universe came about.
