Tonight, I went to a lecture on intelligent design theories by Dr. Del Ratzsch, a professor of philosophy at Calvin College. It was very interesting stuff. I am still working through what I think about it, but I was reassured that there could be evidence of intelligent design of the universe out there. Proponents of intelligent design, according to Dr. Ratzsch, have not yet come up with any empirical evidence of design, and he believes that they are focusing too much on biology, when the best hopes for evidence may lie in cosmology/astronomy.
Some theories, I thought, were pretty far-fetched. For instance, some 'true believers' of intelligent design disavow the existence of a God or creator, but believe that our universe could have been created by a different civilization-- this is the "bubble universe" theory. Another theory is that life originated elsewhere, but "life spores" somehow floated through the universe and landed on Earth, where they were hardy enough to flourish. These theories are (supposedly) supported by evidence which suggests that Earth was inhospitable to life when the Theory of Evolution claims the first organisms developed.
I personally find the idea of a God who created Earth and the universe and set the course of evolution much more plausible. But then again, who knows? AAAAAH! It's all so confusing! I believe in evolution but I want to believe in God as well! But then I hear so much about supposed "problems" with evolutionary theory, and I'm not a scientist, so I have no way to verify them.
But I am going to go out on a limb here and say I am definitely not a Creationist. To hold to a completely literal reading of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is ludicrous. It was all written by humans, and as we all know, humans are infinitely fallible. Couldn't it be that the Earth was not literally created in 7 days, but that those "days" are figurative? Calculating that the Earth is only 6000 years old, by a literal reading of the Bible, and holding steadfastly to that belief, is likewise ridiculous when all scientific evidence shows the world to be billions of years old.
But, that said, I am not completely convinced with any of the other theories either, but at this point I am going to try to do more research on Intelligent Design because it intrigues me.