Most scientists subscribe to the idea that DNA and the first cell arose from non-living matter through unguided chemical interactions. However, there is no known mechanism for the origin of life. This consensus among the scientific community, then, is not due to the soundness of any scientific principle. Rather, it is due to an overwhelming adherence to philosophical naturalism.

Science, according to naturalistic philosophy, must seek to explain the universe in terms of purely natural causes. This definition of science justifies an otherwise unproven assumption that chance chemical interactions were responsible for the first living, self-replicating cell.

But, without experimental substantiation, it is intellectually irresponsible to assume that the astounding complexity of the information in DNA is the result of chance.

It is popular to portray design theorists as religious radicals in lab coats seeking to infiltrate the public educational system with their “unscientific” ideas. Upon closer inspection, however, the works of leading design theorists discredit these portrayals. Intelligent design theorists are scientists — physicists, geneticists, mathematicians and biochemists — pursuing an objective discussion of both the merits of natural selection and its failure to explain the origins of many biological systems.

Design theory is not a threat to the scientific method. No experiment has ever shown that complex information can arise by chance, let alone the encyclopedic amount of information in the DNA of the simplest organisms.

Nor is design theory a dangerously convenient substitute for answers that “real science” might otherwise yield.

Indeed, if one looks at the world through the lens of philosophical naturalism, it is possible to “know” many things about life’s origins that are otherwise unsubstantiated speculations.

Jacob Anderson

Senior

Electrical Engineering