THE FOUR GREAT QUESTIONS

At some point in our lives we are exposed to these questions via a teacher, friend, clergyman, or just self-wondering. In western culture evolutionary theory, despite its apparent strengths and significant shortcomings, has become the primary explanatory filter for answering these questions. It permeates everything in our society. Our educational system, the entertainment industry, the newspapers and magazines we read, and even our everyday speech have been influenced by this hopelessly flawed and now disproved theory. Beginning with early childhood, the constant exposure to evolutionary doctrine, as espoused by its proponents, has narrowed our thinking to believe that there is no other reasonable explanation to the Big Four Questions. Evolutionary thinking has become institutionalized to the extent that we have simply accepted it as fact, and those who question its major shortcomings are often ostracized and considered to occupy the irrational fringe of science. However, many of the scientists and philosophers relegated to the irrational fringe were once evolutionists who began to question and wrestle with the inability of evolutionary theory to explain past and recent discoveries in science. Making the facts fit a flawed theory no longer became acceptable to them.

As a theory, evolution could account for the variations among a single species of animal on this planet, but it could not account for the major differences between species nor could it account for the origin of life in the first place. Enter upon the scene the discovery and structure of DNA and the enormous complexity of the “simple” cell. Evolutionary theory gasped its last breath when it completely failed to explain the origin of the vast “information” bearing qualities found down the backbone of DNA. These major failures of Darwinism sparked a group of philosophers and scientists to emerge and propose a new theory called Intelligent Design that is now leading to a paradigm shift within science. ID, or Intelligent Design, simply claims “that intelligent causes are necessary to explain the complex information-rich structures of biology and that these causes are empirically detectable.” The following resources are excellent for understanding what Intelligent Design is and how evolutionary theory has failed:

1. The Case For a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Towards God. If you are interested in a summary of the leading evidence for intelligent design, this is one of the best books to start with. The book is about one man's journey to atheism and back to Christian theism via the scientific evidence. Lee Strobel is an investigative journalist and he tells a fascinating story of his own journey to understand the evidence. It was a lecture in a high school science classroom that had convinced Strobel that life started by chance, and there was no need for a creator God. Ironically, years later after honing his skills as an investigative reporter, it was the science evidence that convinced Strobel that our existence could only be explained by an intelligent designer. Strobel shares that evidence in a compelling manner as he interviews the leading proponents of the intelligent design theory. Also available as a DVD documentary.

2. Frequently Asked Questions About Intelligent Design

3. Unlocking The Mystery of Life is an excellent one-hour video presentation regarding Intelligent Design. Outstanding graphics give a superb visual presentation of the complexity of the cell and show how proteins are built, looks at how the information bearing properties of DNA are used to manufacture structures used by the cell, and examines the discovery of molecular motors found within the cell. The simply understood and important concepts of “specified complexity” and “irreducible complexity” are explained and demonstrated. Ages 10 and up.

4. Intelligent Design: The Scientific Alternative to Evolution by William S. Harris and John H. Calvert. The authors are trained in scientific research and law. In this article, they show that a substantial scientific controversy exists about our origins, and the controversy cannot be resolved without objective consideration of intelligent design (ID) and its challenge to evolution, and that a resolution of the controversy is enormously important to our world views about science, religion, ethics, and morals. In discussing the issues, the authors make several propositions: 1) that the most important, defining characteristic of Darwinian evolution is that it is an unguided, unplanned, and purposeless process; 2) that ID is science and not religion; and 3) that there are profound religious, ethical, and moral implications associated with each origins theory. The article begins with a comprehensive discussion of key terms and concepts. It then proceeds to a consideration of the detection of design, the evidence supporting both origins hypotheses, and finally it reflects on how ID impacts bioethics.

5. DNA and Other Designs written by Stephen Meyer is a powerfully written and important paper regarding the emergence of the Intelligent Design paradigm shift as a result of the failures of Darwinism. Nontechnical in content, this paper reviews the reasoning behind the rise of Darwinism, the faulty research to support it’s claims, the inability of current evolutionary thinking to explain the new findings within the cell, and why Intelligent Design theory successfully replaces Darwinism.

6. Bacterial flagella: A Paradigm for Design This video presentation takes a detailed look at the bacterial flagella molecular motor discussed in the video Unlocking The Mystery of Life. It’s an excellent resource for the technically grounded individual who wants a further look at the “irreducible complexity” that exists at deeper levels within the bacterial flagella motor.

7. Icons of Evolution (book) and Icons of Evolution Documentary (video) by Jonathan Well’s show the lengths that evolutionary science will go to distort the facts to make them fit a flawed theory.

8. DNA by Design DVD: "The foundations of scientific materialism are in the process of crumbling. Philosopher Stephen C. Meyer shows how the digital code in DNA points powerfully to a designing intelligence behind the origin of life. Unlike previous arguments for intelligent design, DNA by Design presents a radical and comprehensive new case, revealing the evidence not merely of individual features of biological complexity but rather of a fundamental constituent of the universe: information. That evidence has been mountain exponentially in recent years, known to scientists in specialized fields but largely hidden from public view. A Cambridge University-trained theorist and researcher, director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, Dr. Meyer is the first to bring the relevant data together into a powerful demonstration of the intelligence that stands outside nature and directs the path that life has taken."

9. Signature in the Cell, by Dr. Stephen Meyer. "In Signature in the Cell, Dr. Stephen Meyer shows that the digital code embedded in DNA points powerfully to a designing intelligence and helps unravel a mystery that Darwin did not address: how did the very first life begin? Follow Dr. Meyer as he investigates how new scientific discoveries are pointing to intelligent design as the best explanation for the complexity of life and the universe."

If, after reviewing these primary resources and other resources available at Access Research Network, you are convinced that evidence of an intelligent designer exists within our universe, proceed to the next section. If you remain unsure, proceed to the next section anyway.

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