For those who do not believe that the Universe was a product of intelligent design, what qualities of the Universe would you expect to be different if it was intelligently-designed? What would have to be different about the Universe so that intelligent design would be considered the most likely explanation for these qualities? Take note that I am not talking about absolute proof, just whatever evidence would be sufficiently strong to lend weight to intelligent design.
Please take note that this isn't about evolution, the Big Bang or abiogenesis per se, unless you want to work those into it somehow.
Probably I would have to compare it against something that is not designed. But where do I find something that is not designed, if the Universe were, indeed, designed? I would need a piece of evidence, something undesigned, that defeats the seeked conclusion of everything being designed. In other words, either no evidence or evidence that defeats the conclusion.
Prima facie, this begs the question: how do you know then that the Universe is not designed if you cannot possibly compare it with something that is designed, either?
And my answer to that would be: my car is designed, that heap of mud is not. After all, this is what creationists have in mind when they differentiate between designed and not designed things: car obviously designed, heap of mud not necessarily so, see the difference, you heathen?
For instance, Palay's clock on the sand analogy implicitly assumes that sand is not designed, or not worth attention, defeating, thereby, the whole argument.
So, at the end of the day, all this reduces to perceived teleology, after all. And the apparent teleology of a clock does not entail an equally obvious teleology for the surrounding sand.
Ciao
- viole