Intelligent Design- If I only had a brain!

"God made the world in six days flat.
On the seventh, he said: ‘I’ll rest.’
So he let the thing into orbit swing
To give it a dry run test.
A billion years went by
And he took a lookat the whirling blob
His spirits fell and he shrugged:
‘Oh, well! It was only a six-day job.’"
E.Y. "Yip" Harberg, Rhymes for the Irreverent

In a recent documentary now playing on cable television, Ben Stein, genius and television personality, (Wooow!) is exploring the raging debate in the academic community over intelligent design versus Darwinism. According to the documentary, the scientists are adamant about Darwinism. But when you talk to them off the record, they concede that Darwinism has its weaknesses and intelligent design has its strengths. Many say there is so much bitterness between the scientific and religious communities that there is no ground for meeting in the middle. But there can be when people aren’t so adamant about winning their points.

It brought me back to a presentation I made in a grad schol class. The class was one in Human Development and was designed for a look at the many philosophies of mankind. The professor had decided that each member of the class would make a presentation on a specific subject.

"Is there anyone who believes in creationism?" she asked. I raised my hand immediately and the others sort of looked at each other as if to ask "what is she talking about?" Anyway, since the philosophies of humanity started "in the beginning," I was asked if I could make my presentation next week. I always loved going first in grad school because I could coast for the rest of the course. It leaves little time for apprehension because one must get moving immediately. In addition, I tend to give very impressive grad school presentations since I had years of professional advertising experience making presentations to clients.

Anyway, I did a lot of research, prepared a slide presentation, and gave a presentation that blew people out of the water. Some of the major points were:

The Biblical record of creation as outlined in Genesis, Chapter1, lines up with most of science if you switch the word "day" with "era." God, in my view, always has been and always will be and what we would consider a day, he could consider trillions of years.

So we have the big bang ("Let there be light") followed by the formation of planets which seperated light from darkness. Then came the formation of a dome to separate the water on the land and on the ground, or the development of an atmosphere, which eventually produced a sea. After that, comes the creation of life in the sea, and then then came animal life on the land. And finally, came the creation of man before God took a rest.

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the modern scientific and ancient religious versions except that there was an intelligence behind it.

I then went on to challenge some of the issues of evolution such as the inability of separate species to breed. The dog and cat of my children’s youth often made out, but there were not dats or cogs as a result. We can pretty much say the age of recorded history of intelligent man matches the Biblical timeline. I also noted that some of the geological issues had faults. For example, the results of the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in Washington State produced material that was carbon dated at millions of years ago.

Anyway, the main issue is how can we be an accident? The entire universe follows strict laws of design. You can compare our atomic structure to that of a solar system, and the solar systems to the galaxies. Can all this be a freak accident? What I urged was to consider, in a reasonable manner, the evidence on both sides of the dispute. By accident or design, my home page had a survey the day of the presentation that said there is an almost equal division between the two concepts.

I do not know if I changed any minds that day, nor do I care. Furthermore, I do not even care how much the scientific knowledge matches up with the creation theory. My bottom line is mankind is by nature, guess what? C-R-E-A-T-O-R-S. I was recently reminded in another blog how much we have emerged from the primoral goo to fight off the animals that wanted us for food. The story of mankind is that of creativity. From basic tools, to wheels and harnessing fire, to the ancient civilizations, we have used our creativity to fight our way to the top, even if it means fighting each other at the same time.

The poem that introduced this page was by E. Y. Harberg. Google him if you want to know more about him. Some of his poems can be found at YouTube URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s14U0XJ8ocQ

Besides these poems, he wrote the two iconic songs of the Great Depression. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Brother Can You Spare a Dime."

He was a lifelong friend and collabrator of Ira Girshwin. He wrote for Broadway Reviews like the Ziegfield Follies, and the music for such Broadway hits as Finian's Rainbow and of course all the music for The Wizard of Oz. He wrote lyrics for Stephen Sondheim.

And yet, he is an unknown figure in history – just as many of us are. A kid who grew up on New York's lower East Side. Both sides of my family come from that type of existence. And perhaps something we create will influence others, peraps in a subtle way. A kindness may change the world. And so may some meaness. But no matter, what little mankind has created is no accident. Thus, is it so hard to believe that neither is our vast universe?