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From DNA to a Designer
and The Existence of God
and The Existence of God
~ by Richard Swinburne, in The Existence of God (Oxford University Press, 2004).
Robin Collins
Suppose we went on a mission to Mars, and found a domed structure in which everything was set
up just right for life to exist. The temperature, for example, was set around 70o F and the
humidity was at 50%; moreover, there was an oxygen recycling system, an energy gathering
system, and a whole system for the production of food. Put simply, the domed structure appeared
to be a fully functioning biosphere. What conclusion would we draw from finding this structure?
Would we draw the conclusion that it just happened to form by chance? Certainly not. Instead,
we would unanimously conclude that it was designed by some intelligent being. Why would we
draw this conclusion? Because an intelligent designer appears to be the only plausible
explanation for the existence of the structure. That is, the only alternative explanation we can
think of--that the structure was formed by some natural process--seems extremely unlikely. Of
course, it is possible that, for example, through some volcanic eruption various metals and other
compounds could have formed, and then separated out in just the right way to produce the
"biosphere," but such a scenario strikes us as extraordinarily unlikely, thus making this
alternative explanation unbelievable.

