Jehovah is a lazy s.o.b.

This is a quick foray into the so-called "debate" between creationists and biologists about the origin of life, about "intelligent design" vs the theory* of evolution.

According to the "intelligent design" argument, the "irreducible complexity" of reality can not be and could not have been the product of undirected non-purposeful randomness (per Darwinian natural selection) but rather that the hand and mind of an intelligent designer is evident, ie that the fingerprints of God/gods are found all over the universe. For creationists, the human eye is an example of irreducible complexity that could not have evolved but rather must have been designed.

But it would be well within the capacity of an omnipotent being to create/design a zero-maintenance universe, a universe that runs and maintains itself without constant intervention on the part of the creator/designer. It would be well within the capacity of an omnipotent being to create/design a system in which irreducible complexity emerges from the workings of the system itself, rather than requiring work on the part of the creator/designer.

If God is perfect, ze encompasses all qualities, including laziness! Anyone intelligent enough to create the universe would be intelligent enough to minimise the amount of work required! This is a version of the so-called ontological "proof" of the existence of God, in which existence itself is said to be a quality that a perfect being would possess. This version is no more compelling or definitive than any other. But that's OK, because this post doesn't seek to prove the existence or non-existence of God, but rather to disprove, rebut the intelligent design argument.

In fact, deism/theism and science are not mutually exclusive but rather enhance each other. The fact that aspects of reality are describable via reason, logic and mathematics does not detract from the magic and mystery of reality but rather enhances that magic and mystery.

If you absolutely insist on the existence of God/gods, then wouldn't the fact that lifeforms evolve via the mechanism of natural selection be to the greater glory of the Creator/creators from whom sprang the mechanism of natural selection in the first place? If you absolutely insist on the existence of God/gods, then wouldn't the fact that reality is autonomous, doesn't require outside intervention from a transcendent being, be to the greater glory of the Creator/creators who figured out how to introduce that autonomy in the first place?

Of course, these issues only arise in the minds of people for whom divinity is transcendent. In the minds of people (including most pantheists, panentheists and pagans) for whom divinity is immanent, there is no dichotomy between divinity and science. (there's a lot in this blog about transcendence vs immanence.)

* That Darwin's ideas are known as the theory of evolution does NOT mean that evolution is a "theory" in the colloquial sense, ie that it has not been proven and leaves no footprint in reality. In fact, it is one of the most successful and well-established scientific ideas of all in terms of the extent to which it accurately describes reality.

.

HOME