Real Intelligent Design

Note: My "Devotional Dawkins" series of posts is not designed to prove or even assert the factual correctness of either Dawkins' Darwinian narrative or the Vedic worldview narrative. Its purpose is to demonstrate that there are significant points of congruence between the two. Caveat Lector. And on with today's post...

One popular strategy of (so-called) "Intelligent Design" advocates is to produce examples that they say prove that biological life forms must be top-down designed, rather than emergent from simple principles.

These examples show the unmistakable intervention of some supernatural power they claim.

Dawkins and other evolutionary biologists do not accept that these examples disprove the evolution of life forms over time in response to environmental pressures and opportunities. Dawkins says that when our ingenuity is unable to divine the evolutionary path taken by a particular adaptation, "so much the worse for our ingenuity" [1].

I put "so-called" in parentheses before the identifier "Intelligent Design" advocates because the Vedic worldview would see occurrences of anomalies in biological design, that which cannot be explained by the normal operation of the universe according to simple fundamental principles (dharma), as evidence of bad (unintelligent) design.

According to the Vedic version:

And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, I am not a part of this cosmic manifestation, for My Self is the very source of creation.

- Bhagavad-gita 9.5

In his purport to this verse, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains further (my emphasis added in bold):

The Lord says that everything is resting on Him (mat-sthani sarva-bhutani). This should not be misunderstood. The Lord is not directly concerned with the maintenance and sustenance of this material manifestation. Sometimes we see a picture of Atlas holding the globe on his shoulders; he seems to be very tired, holding this great earthly planet. Such an image should not be entertained in connection with Krishna's upholding this created universe. He says that although everything is resting on Him, He is aloof. The planetary systems are floating in space, and this space is the energy of the Supreme Lord. But He is different from space. He is differently situated. Therefore the Lord says, "Although they are situated on My inconceivable energy, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead I am aloof from them." This is the inconceivable opulence of the Lord.

In the Nirukti Vedic dictionary it is said, yujyate 'nena durghateshu karyeshu: "The Supreme Lord is performing inconceivably wonderful pastimes, displaying His energy." His person is full of different potent energies, and His determination is itself actual fact. In this way the Personality of Godhead is to be understood. We may think of doing something, but there are so many impediments, and sometimes it is not possible to do as we like. But when Krishna wants to do something, simply by His willing, everything is performed so perfectly that one cannot imagine how it is being done. The Lord explains this fact: although He is the maintainer and sustainer of the entire material manifestation, He does not touch this material manifestation. Simply by His supreme will, everything is created, everything is sustained, everything is maintained, and everything is annihilated. There is no difference between His mind and Himself (as there is a difference between ourselves and our present material mind) because He is absolute spirit. Simultaneously the Lord is present in everything; yet the common man cannot understand how He is also present personally. He is different from this material manifestation, yet everything is resting on Him. This is explained here as yogam aisvaram, the mystic power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So the universe is not a poorly designed, high maintenance creation, requiring supernatural intervention to keep it running, according to both Dawkins and the Vedic worldview. It is a perfectly integrated autonomous system. You will not find a telling lick of touch-up paint somewhere, no lick-and-stick patchwork, no smoking gun indicating a last minute divine intervention to get a particularly tricky piece of biology to work. In fact, Vedic worldview-subscribers would probably become atheists out of disappointment if such a thing did turn up - what kind of imperfect design would that be?

No, according to the Vedic worldview, and to Dawkins, it's all working perfectly and automatically- and that's real Intelligent Design. Krishna can hit a hole in one from a trillion years away using nothing but a space-time continuum and a handful of cosmic constants.

Congruence on this point with Dawkins: 100%
Congruence on this point with "Intelligent Design" advocates: 0

[1] River out of Eden, Richard Dawkins