Expert: Vincent M. Wales - 1/15/2010

Question
QUESTION: How do you personally believe that the universe came into existence?
Why do we spend so much time trying to prove that there isn't a God? Could we be wrong?
I am an armchair philosopher and logician, and it is beginning to seem to me that intelligent design is not as ludicrous as it cracks up to be...

ANSWER: To question one:  I have no idea.  But to say "God dunnit" is no answer.  Because then one must ask, "How did God come into existence?"  And "God has always existed" is nothing but a cop-out answer.  I could just as easily say, "The universe has always existed."  

To question two:  Who's trying to prove there's no god?  Not me.  That's not my responsibility.  The burden of proof always falls on the one making the positive claim.  In this case, that would be all those who say there is a god.

Being a philosopher and logician is fine, Ethan, but it doesn't help you know anything about Intelligent Design.  Try studying biology... and then you'd see how ludicrous Intelligent Design is.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi again,
I just wanted ot tell you that I have three years of biology under my belt and that I am basing my suspicions of intelligent design on the fact that the way everything is so perfectly designed and fits together to make the world we live in, it seems to perfect to just happen...could we be wrong?  

Answer
If you make statements about how "everything is so perfectly designed and fits together," or how anything in this world "just happened," I have to wonder what aspect of biology you're studying.  These are not the statements a student of biology would make.

The very idea of something being "perfectly designed" is, itself, ludicrous.  Even just looking at the human body, there are all sorts of problems with it from a design standpoint... from the way our internal organs are supported to the way our eyes work. The human body makes little sense as something "intelligently designed."  On the other hand, it makes a great deal of sense as something that evolved and adapted over time.

But to answer your direct question: Yes, of course we can be wrong.  We're wrong about a great many things.  And then we learn more and change our theories accordingly.  That's the basis of science, after all.

But even if we're wrong about different aspects of things, that still doesn't make the "Intelligent Design" idea hold any water.  It's a concept for which there can be no evidence, only opinion, for obvious reasons.