The Summit Lecture Series: Intelligent Design with Sean McDowell, part 3

To purchase the entire Summit Lecture Series DVD set, go to www.summit.org.

So, here’s the central question:

Are we accidental byproducts of blind forces in nature?  Or are we the pinnacle of creation intended by a personal and loving God?

You see, every single worldview has to answer this question in addition to these three others:

1. Origin:  How did we get here?
2. Predicament:  What went wrong?
3. Resolution:  How do we fix it?

For example, Buddhism says that we have always been here eternally, the world got messed up because we have desires, and we fix it by getting rid of our desires.  New Age says that we’ve been here eternally and we’re a part of God, but the world went wrong because we forgot it, so the resolution is for us to remember.

Now, the Christian worldview holds that:

The origin is “…in the beginning God created…”; the predicament is that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”; and the resolution lies in “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”

Now, Darwinism has a very different story that is actually in direct competition with Christianity:

1. Origin:  Darwinism implies that humanity developed by accident.
2. Predicament:  The clumsy, imperfect process of evolution.
3. Resolution:  We must solve our own problems.

Even in his own autobiography, Charles Darwin came face to face with where his own theories lead to:

“The view now held by most physicists is that the sun with all the planets will in time grow too cold for life unless indeed some great body dashes into the sun and thus give it fresh life.  Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he is now, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other esentment beings are doomed to complete annihilation.”

Now, with all this in mind, it absolutely floors me that so many atheists admit that the universe appears as though it comes from some sort of design.  Richard Dawkins has even been quoted as saying:

“Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.”

Then he went on for 350 pages to try to explain that this appearance of design is merely an “appearance” and not real.  But if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck and smells like a duck… maybe it actually is a design and not merely an appearance of a design!  Maybe, just perhaps, the world looks like it’s designed… because it is designed!!

But this appearance should come as no surprise to Christians, because as Psalm 19:1-2 says:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hand.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.”

David wrote that 3,000 years ago – long, long before we would be aware of the compelling design that we are about to explore and so many people today argue against.

For more engaging and enlightening videos and podcasts, visit the E-Squared Media Network at www.e2medianetwork.com