Material Faith

Originally, I wanted to post something on evolution. I used the example of the eye to show the immense gap between the physical world and the creative potential of a blind chemical process. Although I realized that I need to do a lot more research before I about specific sensory examples. But generally, I wanted to show the huge leap that random variation of DNA would have to make to create the sensory systems of living organisms. The auditory system for example must be specifically tailored to the real physical world before it can give a living organism any survival information. Its many interdependent parts would have had to develop simultaneously to give a creature any sort of survival advantage. The subsequent general idea being that sensory systems have an irreducible complexity wherein if you take one part away then the entire system can no longer function so that a part-by-part evolutionary development would not be possible. But again, this is just a thought experiment because I need to do actual research on the workings and development of sensory systems.

Another side-point I wanted to make is; did random variation, the blind creative force behind evolution, attempt to "reach out" to non-existent things in the physical world before successfully creating any sensory system? Random variation cannot anticipate what is actually in the physical world so, it would seem, it would have to attempt an almost infinite number of variations to "grab a hold" of reality when creating the sensory connections to the physical world.

However, I realized that I was giving evolution far too much ground in placing the point of contention on the development of the senses. If evolution could give rise to organisms that could acquire senses then evolution might be able to create the connections between those creatures and their environment. So, the real point of contention should be the development of life itself. I need to do far more research on this also but, from what I've read, the precariousness and rarity of the chemical processes involved is astounding. And, to me, the amount of complex information existent in DNA screams intelligence.

As a side note:
(Materialism claims that it is a system of thought devoid of faith. It is the worldview that is the basis of all atheistic thought. It's main brainchild is evolution but I see a lot of faith in the gaps of evolution; therefore, I think that it is intellectually dishonest for materialists to argue that their worldview is faith-free.)

One of the main points of this blog is to paint my worldview. And, this is the picture that comes to mind when I read about the complexity of life:
Picture yourself walking alone on the beach. You consider the immensity of the ocean, which pulls your mind to the immensity of universe. You contemplate your place therein and you figure that in the vast expanse of all existence it would be possible for you to be alive no matter how improbable. You think that given enough random chance you could be made by unthinking physical forces. But then you look down and see your name written in the sand. Immediately you look around because you assume someone wrote it. A sentient being with the capacity to string letters together was there and wrote your name. What you do not do is figure that, no matter how improbable, this could have happened randomly given enough chances in a huge universe, you know that such thought is foolish. You do not think that the tide, the movement of hermit crabs and the interaction of water and sand created this ordering of letters that identifies you. In this case, you do not relegate the capacity to produce ordered information to the meanderings of physical forces. So why do so with the astronomically more complex information that manifests life?

Now, your DNA is so amazingly complex that the ordering of those letters actually creates you. It is a bundle of information that even gives you the capacity to see your name in the sand and supplies you with the reasoning to tell you that a person wrote it. It's an identity marker so ineffable and complete that it gives you your physical composition. In a sense, it is your name but a name that contains such virtuosity and complexity that, by it, you are. Given the sheer amount and complexity of information in DNA one could assume that it is actually more probable for your name to randomly occur in sand than for you to be alive to see it. So, why not look at DNA and assume an intelligence was responsible for the writing? DNA is your name in the sand and I think it wise to look around for the Author.

To me, it takes a huge leap of faith (or a blind commitment to materialism and atheism) to assume that an intelligence is not responsible for life. Your thoughts.