Intelligent Design
The hand of a ‘Designer’ is seen in:
Noah’s Ark, plants, atoms, DNA, the planets, music, medical science – even spider’s webs.
Often the design and the mathematics seem to point to Christ – the Creator and Designer!
“A commonsense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature” [ Fred Hoyle, cosmologist ]
See also Quantum Mechanics and the Bible
Intelligent Design v Creationism
Many acknowledge the ‘apparent design’ in the universe, including atheist and zoologist Richard Dawkins:
Biology is the study of complicated things that have the appearance of having been designed with a purpose
Richard Dawkins
The big question of course is ‘has such apparent design evolved? Adherents of Intelligent Design (ID) hold that this ‘design’ is best explained by an intelligent cause and not by an undirected evolutionary process. ID is claimed to be a scientific theory involving empirical observations, hypothesis, experiments, and conclusion. It is also strongly related to information theory. In particular, it is observed that where there is high information content, ID plays a causal role [Professor S. C. Meyer]. Meyer concludes:
Information is not reducible to natural causes, and the origin of information is best sought in intelligent causes
Professor S. C. Meyer
In contrast to Creationism, ID does not attempt to align scientific observations with the biblical text, and no attempt is made to identify the intelligent cause with the God of the Bible. In other words, ID can be formulated as a scientific theory having empirical consequences and devoid of religious commitments, link.
This division is unfortunate since there are strong, often mathematical links between scientific observations and the biblical text. So this article merges the science of ID with key biblical texts to obtain a fuller picture.
Numbers and Mathematics in God’s Creation
“Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe”
Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)
The Bible clearly states that the earth is designed. When Job questioned God he got the reply:
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth … who determined its measurements?
Job 38:4-5
In the New Testament we read that Jesus was there at the point of creation:
All things came into being through Him
John 1:3
and that the hand of God is evident to all, from flowers, to human love to the starry heavens:
His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made
Rom 1:20
Clearly, the Designer of all things must have great wisdom and understanding. Some describe God as ‘the Master Engineer’, link and modern engineering sometimes copies what we observe in nature, link.
Engineering relies upon numbers and mathematics, and so it is not surprising to find amazing numbers and mathematics embedded in God’s creation (as well as in the Bible). We will examine a few of these, starting with some simple examples. In each case we see the hand of understanding and design, and often this appears to point to Christ as the Designer.
Optimal Timing
The number 8 is important in male circumcision. God instructed Abraham to circumcise a male child when he is 8 days old (Gen 17:12). Why day eight? Medical science has shown that on the eighth day the amount of blood clotting factor prothrombin present in the body is more than 100% above normal, and this is normally the only day in the male’s life when this is the case, link. Today, Prothrombin Complex Concentrate (PCC) is used to accelerate blood coagulation, link. So day eight is the optimal day for minimising haemorrhaging during circumcision!
Dimensions of Noah’s Ark
The Bible is rather brief on the design of Noah’s Ark:
The length of the Ark shall be 300 cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits … You shall make it with lower, second and third decks
Gen 6:15-16
Nevertheless, it turns out that this is sufficient to perform serious analysis of the Ark’s stability using modern ship design techniques. Since there are many definitions of the ancient cubit, ranging from 17.5 to 26 inches, which cubit applies here? Some believe it was the Egyptian Royal cubit of about 20.6 inches, link. This makes the Ark about 515 feet long, or 6180 inches. Several measurements of what appears to be an ancient boat found on the mountains of Turkey appear to confirm this length, link. It is intriguing that 6180 appears in the reciprocal of the ‘golden ratio’ 1/Φ = 0.618034 (described later).
There have been a number of naval studies based on the Ark’s biblical dimensions. One 1993 study using a cubit of 20.4 inches (510 feet long) concluded that the biblical dimensions were optimal for stability, strength and comfort, and that the Ark could handle 30m waves, link. A 1977 study assumed the common cubit of 18 inches, making the Ark some 450 long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. This study concluded that ‘the Ark was extremely stable’ when four major stability features were examined, even in 210 knot winds, link. So, in major design aspects, Noah’s Ark was as good as modern shipping!
Footprint of Solomon’s Temple
Consider the footprint of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem:
The length was 60 cubits (by cubits according to the former measure) and the width 20 cubits
2 Chronicles 3:3
We have already seen that numbers and sizes in the Bible are not random but are given for a purpose. They may be optimal in some way (as in the timing of circumcision or in the size of Noah’s Ark), or they may have a deeper, spiritual significance. Here we have the footprint dimensions of a house built for the Lord (1 Kings 6:2), a holy place. When the temple was completed the Lord appeared to Solomon saying:
I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there
1 Kings 9:3
So do the dimensions of the temple point to the Lord’s name? Consider the perimeter of the temple, 160 cubits, where the cubit referred to is sized ‘according to the former measure’. What was this measure? Some claim that the temple cubit was 18 inches, link. But others claim that in large-scale construction projects, ancient civilizations typically used the long cubit, about 19.8-20.6 inches, [answersingenesis.org].
Let us assume that Solomon used the Babylonian royal cubit of 19.8 inches, link. Recent measurements on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem support the Babylonian royal cubit, link. In this case the perimeter is 19.8 × 160 inches = 3,168 inches. Now consider the phrase “Lord Jesus Christ”. Applying Bible gematria, the Greek letters in ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ sum to exactly 3,168! So did the Lord put His name there in the very dimensions of the temple?
Geometry of Sun, Moon and Earth
Scientists say ‘it is a happy accident of nature’, ‘it is a striking coincidence’, ‘sheer chance’ or ‘a fluke of celestial mechanics’. They are referring to the amazing geometry associated with the Sun, Moon and Earth. During a total eclipse the Moon casts its umbra (shadow) upon Earth’s surface so that the Sun is totally obscured, as depicted in Fig.1. The Earth, Moon, Sun geometry is such that only the beautiful corona of the Sun is left (conveniently permitting astronomers to analyse the Sun’s atmosphere, link). Since the Sun’s diameter is about 400 times that of the Moon, the eclipse can only happen if the distances of Sun and Moon from Earth (the geometry) are just right. It turns out that this is the case and both Sun and Moon subtend virtually that same angle Θ such that they look virtually the same size in the sky. Amazing!
Let’s do the maths. Taking some average measurements, [space.com], the Moon’s diameter DM is about 2,159 miles, the Sun’s diameter DS is about 864,938 miles, the Moon’s average distance EM is about 238,855 miles (elliptical orbit) and the Sun’s distance ES is one astronomical unit (AU) or about 92,956,000 miles. So considering the angle subtended by the Moon, Θ = 2 × arctan (0.0045195) = 0.52° and the angle subtended by the Sun is Θ = 2 × arctan (0.0046524) = 0.53°, link. Chance, or God’s amazing design?
In Genesis 1 we read that God created (designed) the moon and the earth:
In the beginning God created … the earth … and God made two great lights … the lesser light to rule the night
So, as with Solomon’s temple, we might expect His signature in the dimensions of these objects. Due to its rotation, the earth is an oblate spheroid with a equatorial diameter of 7,926 miles and a pole-pole diameter of 7,900 miles, link. Let us assume an earth diameter of 7,920 miles, and a moon diameter of 2,160 miles.
As pointed o