What is Intelligent Design

A basic definition of "Intelligent Design” might be the concept that we observe various physical and biological features of the Universe whose existence is best explained as due to the actions of an Intelligent Agent rather than due to the effects of undirected natural processes such as natural selection.

In contrast to Neo-Darwinist (evolution) theory, intelligent design philosophers and scientists argue that the best explanation for the origins of life, and the origins of the many biological forms, is an Intelligent Agent.

Intelligent Design (ID) theory postulates that design is empirically detectable in various physical and biological aspects of the Universe. For example-

1. the overwhelming scientific evidence that the Universe had a definite beginning, observed since the 1920s in the red-shift and the expansion of the Universe,

2. the substantial evidence that the physical constants of the Universe have been enormously fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life, and

3. the large amounts of functional information present in the DNA of biological organisms.

The three factors mentioned above, among others, all provide convincing evidence that a Superintelligence created the Universe (and continues to maintain its existence), and this Superintelligence must have also created the life forms present on Earth. Materialist scientific theories, citing undirected natural causes, simply cannot provide convincing explanations for the origins of the Universe and the origins and development of life on Earth.

ID theorists may or may not specify that the Intelligent Agent responsible for design in the Universe is God, and ID in general does not attempt to define the exact nature of the Intelligent Agent. ID theorists recognize that our Universe could not have simply popped into existence by itself. ID theory would only be inconsistent with Judaism if it implied a Creator with characteristics contrary to Torah theology. I am not aware that ID does imply any such characteristics. However, its astounding how some Jews can believe that acceptance of atheist Darwinist evolution can be preferable to acceptance of ID.