In the scientific community, the debate over intelligent design versus evolution often attempts to answer a complex question: Are we an accident?

The Biola Christian Apologetics Program screened a film entitled “Privileged Species: How the Cosmos is Designed for Human Life,” written and directed by John West of The Discovery Institute. The short film featured Dr. Michael Denton, a biologist and geneticist who finds evidence in nature that earth was intelligently designed for human life, and that we are, in fact, not an accident. Approximately 500 people attended the November 14 event, which was hosted by Biola faculty John Bloom, Craig J. Hazen and Fred Sanders. It included an interview with Denton himself.

DESIGN WITH A PURPOSE

“Privileged Species” aims to explain how the elements carbon, water and oxygen work together so intricately that if these elements differed even slightly, intelligent human life would not be able to exist. The precision of the conditions that support life in our universe provide strong evidence of the intelligent design that purposely built nature.

The beauty and parsimony of the way the elements of our universe fit together reveals the universe’s specific design for beings like ourselves, Denton said.

Denton presents his evidence for intelligent design by explaining the roles of carbon, water and oxygen in the essential functions of natural and human life, and how the perfect balance of their conditions suggests that we are, in fact, a privileged species, living in a universe perfectly fit for us. The intricate construction of these elements points to a designer, and cannot be random.

“What I see myself as doing is bringing out just how extraordinary the fitness is and letting my reader infer design from the evidence itself … I hope that I’m presenting the evidence in such a compelling way that everybody in the audience understands that there must be design,” Denton said.

ARGUING AGAINST COINCIDENTAL PERFECTION

The ideas presented in this film present a solid argument against the coincidental perfection of the universe’s conditions and the notion that human life evolved randomly.

“The truth is important to me. So if it’s true that the universe is uniquely fit for beings like ourselves, or fine-tuned for ourselves, then it’s important that people know about it, and it’s important to defend that idea…I hope that it influences [people’s] spiritual life and experience of the world, by realizing that there is good evidence for design…That’s what I would hope, that it inspires people,” Denton said.

Denton remains sure of more hidden evidence to discover about the fitness of the universe for human life, which will assure us that we are a privileged species, intelligently designed to live in a universe tailored to our needs.