It would be more accurate to say that the universe has some apparent design. However, apparent design does not automatically mean actual design. Of course many things, we know to be designed, (‘intelligently’ so), such as wristwatches, vehicles or buildings etc. But then we know the designers of those things . . . intelligent humans designed them, and we could investigate, and name the designers, and maybe even talk to them.
Many natural things may look designed, even intelligently so. However if we are thinking of plants and animals for example, they differ from wristwatches, vehicles or buildings etc., in that plants and animals are alive, and can produce offspring, the apparent design of which is attributable to the previous generation of said living things.
That is not automatically true, and I’d venture to say it’s not generally true. Many people have left a religion, because they have discovered and become convinced that there is no good evidence to back up any god claims, and that the logic of belief is wrong.
I wouldn’t say that religious belief is necessarily irrational, because the religious people, (though not all), could give their reasons for belief, (such as you outline in your post, Sorrentino). The question is: “Do those reasons amount to anything which reflects reality?” Well maybe the reasons are emotional ones, and not logical ones, and emotions are a part of reality, but emotions are not a good foundation for deciding what is true or false in reality, (IMHO).
And by the way, I count myself as an agnostic atheist, meaning that although I cannot disprove the existence of some gods, I still have no GOOD reason to believe that they exist . . . no good evidence. I do not think that one should believe, before there is good convincing evidence, and so far I’m not convinced. Ignorance of how things work, is no way to come to conclusions about how reality actually works. To say that the universe screams ID seems to be based on ignorance . . . I, (Mutorc), know of no ID claims which have not been rebutted, or shown to be hollow. Fully natural explanations exist, or potentially exist.
Many aspects of the universe scream a LACK of intelligent design, which goes against the idea of an intelligent, (god?), designer for them. Unless that so-called intelligent designer deliberately designs things as though a lack of intelligence had been employed, why do we observe such phenomena? [ Research the recurrent laryngeal nerve in mammals, particularly the giraffe - a prime example of stupid design). An intelligent designer which deliberately uses some stupid design, certainly looks very much like no design and no intelligence in those cases - is that the impression that it would want to convey? No wonder people are atheists.
On the point of being an agnostic atheist, some proposed gods are incoherent, or contradictory, or otherwise impossible, and so one can be a strong atheist with respect to those proposed gods. But to count a particular god in, as a ‘possibly existing intelligent designer’, one would have to know a heck of a lot about the god, in order to determine whether or not it is a possible or an impossible god. And still, we have no good evidence for any god. Some things in nature LOOK intelligently designed, does not ‘cut the mustard’.
Cheers,
Mutorc S’yriah
