This past week World Magazine carried an article titled, “A Time to Talk Back.”  The sub-headline read, “Christians need not be afraid to confront the inconsistencies of Darwinism.” The article featured an extensive interview with Dr. J. Budziskewski, an ethics and philosophy professor at the University of Texas.  The professor is a follower of Christ who rejects the Darwinist theory of natural selection which serves as the explanation of man’s origin in most academic circles.

Dr. Budziskewski states, “It wasn’t for theological or biblical reasons that I began to develop doubts (about Darwinism).  It was for scientific reasons- purely, exclusively.  I looked at the data.  I spent more than a year reading both pro- and anti-Darwinist accounts and discovered that the Darwinist explanations don’t explain what they purport to explain.”

Dr. Budziskewski is one of many scientists who have concluded, based on the scientific evidence alone, that there must be an intelligent designer behind the universe.  Anthony Flew, one of the most famous atheist philosophers of our time, rejected atheism near the end of his life.  His mantra all his life was from Plato’s Socrates: “Follow the evidence wherever it leads.”  He concluded after a lifelong pursuit of truth: the complexity of nature and the origin of life can only be explained by the presence of a super-intelligence.

Those of us who aren’t familiar with all the pros and cons of the theory of evolution are encouraged by the testimony of brilliant scientists who believe, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  It’s good to know that while many of the intellectual elite scoff at the idea of intelligent design, there are brilliant academicians who conclude that there is a…”God who made the world and everything in it” (Acts 17:24).

However, while we believers of average intelligence want to confront the inconsistencies of macro-evolution, we just don’t have the academic credentials or the scientific knowledge to do so.  As a result we usually clam up in intellectual discussions and say little to those who insist creationism is a myth.  We don’t want to look stupid and uninformed.

In my opinion, the best way for most of us to confront evolution is from a common-sense perspective.  It’s fairly simple…every human being instinctively knows the difference between random results and deliberate design.  It’s a matter of common sense.

When explorers discover stick figures drawn on a cave wall, they speculate about the cave dwellers who inscribed those pictures on the wall.  No one ever suggests that perhaps a series of earthquakes millions of years ago made those structured cracks in the cavern.  They conclude someone has been there because people instinctively know the difference between deliberate design and random results.

When tourists visit Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, no one ever suggests that monument could be the result of a vicious tornado or millions of years of brutally cold winters.  Anyone who sees those massive suspended stones, arranged in a circle, instinctively concludes it was the result of intelligent design.  Engineers speculate how those huge rocks could have been lifted into place without modern machinery.

Wikipedia reads, “Archaeologists believe [Stonehedge] was built anywhere from 3000 to 2000 BC.”  Note, “It was built,” not, “apparently evolved millions of years ago.”  Why?  Because we instinctively know the difference between deliberate design and random results.

Here’s a simple test.  Of the two pictures below which is a deliberate design and which is a random result?

The picture on the left is a rock formation at the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.  It’s amazing how the wind has formed this rock to look somewhat like a human head. (There are actually 7 such formations close together at this park, they call them “the seven sisters.”)

The picture on the right is, of course, Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota.  If you ever stand at the base of Mount Rushmore, I wouldn’t advise nudging a stranger standing next to you and asking, “Did someone carve those faces out of the mountain or is that the result of millions of years of weathering?”  They will consider you an imbecile…because everyone instinctively knows the difference between random results and deliberate design.

Let’s look at one more photograph.  This is a picture of something a trillion times more complex than stick figures drawn on a cave wall, a billion times more inexplicable than heavy rocks suspended on top of each other, and a million times more intricate than a stone carving on a granite mountain.  Look at this photo and decide – is this a random result or a deliberate, intelligent design?

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God…”

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

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