AND BEFORE THE BIG BANG...?

Here in a green new spring, a dark old debate rages hotter than ever. How did we get here? And why? For centuries, we turned to religion for answers. Recently, to science. Somehow we've confused them as toe-to-toe enemies instead of shoulder-to-shoulder allies. Big mistake....!

The face of science has come to look like Darwin and his magnificent theory of Evolution. Meanwhile, the face of religion has come to look like smarmy televangelists and scandalous cardinals. And yet, many Darwinists believe in God, and many Religionists believe in Darwin. So maybe this state-of-war between science and religion is unfounded (possibly concocted).

Einstein presciently advised: "If you can't explain it simply, you just don't understand it well enough." Agreeing with that, lets see if we can explain this simply. After the evolutionists have had their eloquent say about the origins and mutations of the species (including us), we are still left to hear from the cosmologists. Accepting that evolution has been at work from the instant of the Big Bang, what can the cosmologists tell us was there the nanosecond BEFORE the Bang?

While the evolutionists quite properly say "that's the domain of cosmologists," the cosmologists quite properly add "we don't really know." Enter a third player -- Intelligent Design. Oh no, wait a minute! Isn't that introducing religion into science, trying to sneak it into the science classroom like they've done in the Kansas and Texas school systems?

Not necessarily.

True, some ID advocates are religionist wolves in sheep's clothing. However, other ID advocates are evolutionist sheep who just look like they're in wolves clothing. What this latter group argues is that the animal & human cells that have originated and evolved ever since the Big Bang are far far more complex than Darwin could ever have imagined. And so, as they examine these eloquent animal & human complexities with their vastly more complex instrumentations, they seem to be saying: Wait, this debate is not over yet. There's solid scientific evidence of intelligent design here, and not simply accidental evolution.

Voila, God....? No, not necessarily. But these neuro-biologists do posit some kind of design at work. OK, then how does that strike the high priest of atheistic Darwinism, Professor Richard Dawkins...? In a recent interview with TV documentarian Ben Stein, Dawkins granted this much: "Well, yes, I suppose there may have been some design or designer before the Bang; but that in itself must have had some design or designer before it."

Stein -- pressing his case that Intelligent Design does not have to mean a Biblical God -- concluded: "So you're admitting, sir, there could be some design or designer if we just keep looking back far enough before the Bang?" Dawkins sniffed, "Well, If that makes you feel better...."

Stein smiled, "Yes it does. That means we need to keep looking back and back before we shut our telescopes and say case closed." I'm not at all sure Dr Dawkins agreed. I am entirely sure that I do.