Hallmarks of Design

Posted by Worldview Warriors On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 0 comments

Life, in all its diversity, actually boils down to only a few basic things that EVERY living organism shares. In some of these cases, the shared traits are so exceptionally specific when compared to the possibilities it leads one to realize the specificity of a Designer.

All living things use DNA and/or RNA to pass on species specific genetic information to the next generation. The shape of these structures (based on their chirality) can have a large number of variations yet every one of them known has the same chirality. For example, there are at least 16 different ways RNA can be organized, yet every living creature we know of has the same structured RNA.

Proteins are the same way. While a “left handed” protein is essential for life, “right handed” proteins can destroy it. How is it that this happened? Sugars, on the other hand, are “right handed.” These complex structures can be built or formed a number of different ways, yet are always the same. Such universal traits seem to suggest a common design rather than random, undirected processes.

Suggesting design in living things does not immediately remove it from a scientific discussion, as many would contend. Generally, my experience is that this type of argument (that creationism is not science while evolutionism/Darwinism is science) is used only because it appears on the surface to make alternatives to evolutionary dogma inferior when it, in fact, is simply a false notion altogether.

We can look at a thing and know, in many cases, for certain it was designed. Find something as simple as the head of an arrow made by a Native American and you will know that this rock did not take this shape naturally. It was designed. Something this simple and yet we know it has the hallmarks of design. In this case, we can note that a particular shape was dictated for a specific function and that the uniformity and nature of the shape would likely not be the result of random, undirected, unintelligent processes. Now what if we found a message on a piece of stone in the ground that consisted of the message “We were here?” Would we not conclude this message (which is a series of symbols that are built to represent a thought for a purpose) had an intelligent source? Take this to something a little more similar in content to a DNA strand—say we found a library worth of books in the ground. This would be more similar to the amount of information stored in our DNA. Would we conclude such a large amount of specified information was the result of natural processes that were blind to what they were doing or would it make sense that an intelligence organized such a huge amount of highly specific and complex information? Obviously, the latter is exceptionally more likely.

Intelligent design proponents look at living things and see clear signs of design or intent. Indicators for design are a high information content and irreducible complexity. High information content can be referred to as specified complexity. Dr. Michael Behe stated, "Our ability to be confident of the design of the cilium or intracellular transport rests on the same principles to be confident of the design of anything: the ordering of separate components to achieve an identifiable function that depends sharply on the components.”

Our human experience demands the conclusion of design when viewing life in its various forms. We understand cause and effect relationships and, thus, must conclude that life is far too complex and has far too many commonalities within its diversity to be the result of random, undirected processes that no one has yet to explain naturally. Our human experience tells us things that appear to be specifically organized and fashioned purposefully are, in fact, designed. Intelligence is necessary for these things to happen and intelligence is something the religion of Darwinism cannot account for.

Job 12:7-10 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; 8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. 9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? 10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

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