Design in Nature

• All knowledge comes from experience and so we can never know what is outside the Universe, if we define the Universe as what can in principle be experienced. To know something one must first have contact with it and we can only have contact with what is in the same Universe as us.
• Since the Creator came before the Universe It is outside its bounds and only knowable through Its actions but all around us in the Universe we see law in action through a chain of causation from the first cause to the last event; let us call this first cause God if we will but the Creator God is not a person but a “something” we cannot know directly.
• My philosophy is deistic but it is a tradition which although it has failed so far because it did not inspire or warm our hearts does seem true. Perhaps the surest source of warmth in deism is the anger that God made the world so bloody awful. It is reasonable to ask whether he might not have done better. It is also reasonable to ask whether it would have been better for God to refuse to create the Universe rather than create so much pain. It is quite reasonable but completely pointless to be angry with the Creator. Perhaps the universe as it is now is the best that God could have created. Perhaps God is growing. Perhaps God is not good. Perhaps God is a bad craftsman.
• But as well as evil, there is good in the Universe and it is possible that human actions could make the world a better place. Perhaps we could choose the path of good? The human race could grow to fulfilment and there is a chance that some time in the future Man or his descendants will create a Garden of Eden. But why does God not take away today’s pain?
• By studying Nature we will hopefully come to understand the Creator better. It is amazing what a primate on one small planet has achieved already - what might we achieve one day. But for now i belive we know some things for sure. 1 The Universe is governed by law. 2 These laws display design. 3 We are part of the Creator's design, whatever that may. 4 We can understand Creation, at least in part. 4 In some respect we are like the Creator since we can understand the law which govern it. 5 Our actions make a diference for good or evil.
• Let us be warmed and inspired by seeing our place in the Universe and let us use the warmth of understanding something of our place in eternity to inspire our actions. In the everyday world of here and now it is the task of politics and every human being to live well do what can be done to ease today's pain.