Intelligent Design

[Esquilax]

The blueprints are in the genetic code, and when we can't explain the origin of things that have characteristics found in design, then I think we can rationally assume design.

Okay, let's have some fun: let's assume, for the sake of argument, that it is indeed rational to assume design.

What are we left with? A vague, nebulous designer. Where did that designer come from? Did it, perchance, come about abiogenetically, due to natural processes that led to it forming from molecules? If so then you no longer have a basis for discounting it on Earth as you did to come to the designer conclusion in the first place. The argument from ignorance of "there's no current explanation for abiogenesis," that you used officially goes out the door. Did the designer not come about that way? Did it always exist, pop into existence from nothing, or something of that ilk? Well, now you're in trouble because you have no observations at all in support of that even being possible, meaning you've abandoned your scientific pretense entirely the moment you have a conclusion you want to reach.

So which is it? Will you abandon your argument in support of design on Earth, making it unnecessary to presume design at all? Or will you abandon the scientific method? Because, to be clear, it is impossible to get to a designer that has any form of justification at all, without allowing some of the things you've asserted to be impossible as a lynchpin argument in your case. Either your argument is wrong, or your designer cannot exist.

For that matter, assuming you can find your way out of that dilemma adequately, would your designer look anything like the organisms that it designed (you're a christian, so I feel like you should be taking that "made in god's image" thing seriously)? Given that your whole argument thus far has been that you infer design because you see the appearance of design... wouldn't that mean that your designer itself has the appearance of design and thus would be, under your own logic, designed too? And if it doesn't look designed, which would mean you're abandoning your religious views... what would that even look like? If all life on Earth looks designed to you, then what would a non-designed life form look like? To make a determination that something is one way, as opposed to another, then clearly you'd need a point of contrast between the two states, so what is it? What would a non-designed organism be like, and how did you determine that, since you're so sure that life on Earth is designed?