A basis for the creationism idea is the concept that humans are at the center of the universe.  The idea of a god used to make some sense, when people thought that the Earth was the unmoving center of creation, and humans were the reason that there was an Earth and everything else.  The biblical universe was much simpler then.  The flat Earth was at the base, and above was the vast solid dome called the firmament.  It contained the stars and held back the celestial waters.  Above that were Heaven and God.

We now know that the universe is almost unimaginably immense, complex, and ancient.  It is the height of conceit for humans to believe that this whole universe was made just for us.  Our perspective has changed.  We are no longer at the center of the universe — not our planet, not our star, and not our galaxy.  As people grow and mature, one of the big realizations is that they aren’t at the center.  It is the same for our species; it is time for us to realize that we are not at the center either.

It is also necessary to note that in order for Intelligent Design to be true, these areas of science would be largely false: evolutionary biology, paleobiology, cosmology, astronomy, physics, paleontology, archeology, historical geology, zoology, botany, and biogeography, plus much of early human history.  These fields of science make predictions and get results.  ID makes no verifiable predictions and gets no useful results, and thus cannot in any way be called a science.  A simple example of this is the field of oil exploration, where you won’t find any geologists using creationism or ID — because they don’t get results.  And, with large amounts of money at stake, the companies want results.

The most common reason people give for why they believe in God is the apparent design of the world.  I think that this is part of why proponents of ID are putting so much energy into promoting their view and attempting to refute evolution.  They realize that if the design argument were to fall, people might rethink their belief in God.

Many people say things like, “Isn't that baby cute?” or, “Isn't that sunset beautiful?  There MUST be a god.”  I think that, if they are going to give their god credit for the apparent good and beauty in the world, they should also give their god credit for the evil and ugliness — such as natural disasters, babies with birth defects, and all the diseases.  The morality of nature shows its evolutionary heritage.  What loving, intelligent designer would have invented the diseases of the world, including a parasite that blinds millions of people and a gene that covers babies with excruciating blisters?  This is part of the Problem of Evil, which I will cover later.

For more, see articles and websites listed in our “Evolution” science section.