Meditation 447
Another Alternative To "Intelligent Design"
by: Dan Shanefield
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Here is a new and rarely-mentioned possible exlanation for how a seemingly "well-designed" thing like the human eye could have been generated entirely by the random processes of "evolution."
This explanation arises from the sub-field of modern physics called "string theory." The present belief of some physics researchers includes the concept that there is a tremendous number (maybe ten raised to the five-hundredth power ! ) of separate universes, all co-existing right now. We just happen to be in the one where conditions are right for life (moderate temperatures on earth, along with water, and oxygen, etc.). And those somewhat-low-probability things such as the human eye just happened to have been formed here, by random evolutionary processes.
It's hard for us to imagine, but according to string theory, it's possible. (For example, see the book by Leonard Susskind, "The Cosmic Landscape," subtitled "String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design," Little, Brown & Co., 403 pp. $24.95 --- Reviewed by Corey S. Powell in N.Y. Times Book Reviews, Jan. 15, 2006, page 16.)
At present, we can't experimentally prove or disprove it, but neither can religious leaders prove that there is a God (or gods, or goddesses).