Dr. N.L. Kachhara
The existence of life has always been a question for humanity. Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. believe in creationism, which holds that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing. There are different versions of creationism, including Dualistic and Non-Dualistic concepts of Hinduism, Young Earth Creationism, Gap Creationism and Progressive Creationism. "Creationism became the object of renewed interest among conservative religious groups following the wide dissemination of the theory of biological evolution, first systematically propounded by Charles Darwin in the 19thcentury. In the late 20thcentury, many creationists advocated a view known as Intelligent Design, which was essentially a scientifically-modern version of the argument from design point of view for the existence of God." "This view is intended to demonstrate that living organisms were created in more or less their present form by an "Intelligent designer," i.e. God. Proponents of intelligent design observed that the functional parts and systems of living organisms are incredibly complex, in the sense that none of their component parts can be removed without causing the whole system to cease functioning. From this premise they inferred that no such system could have come about through the gradual alteration of functioning precursor systems by means of random mutation and natural selection, as proposed by the standard account of evolution. Critics of Intelligent Design argued that it rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of natural selection, that it ignores the existence of precursor systems in the evolutionary history of numerous organisms, and that it is ultimately untestable and therefore not scientific.
Creationist views reject scientific findings and methods. On the other hand, no scientific evidence supports Creationist viewpoints. Evolutionists find "overwhelming evidence that evolution has taken place and is continuing to occur. The annual changes in influenza viruses and the emergence of bacteria resistant to antibiotics are both products of evolutionary forces. Another example of ongoing evolution is the appearance of mosquito resistant to various insecticides, which has contributed to a resurgence of malaria in Africa and elsewhere."
The International Society for Science and Religion believes that "intelligent design is neither sound science nor good theology. Although the boundaries of science are open to change, allowing supernatural explanations to count as science undercuts the very purpose of science: explaining the working of nature without recourse to religious language. Attributing complexity to the interruption of natural law by a divine designer is, as some critics have claimed, a science stopper. In the opinion of the overwhelming majority of research biologists, there are no examples of "irreducible complexity" in biological evolution that cannot be explained by normal, scientifically understood processes. Further, what may appear to be "irreducibly complex" today may be explained naturalistically tomorrow".
