Thank you for the reporting on my talk recently at Hillsdale on “Symmetry, Order, and Providence in Creation” and to my hosts and audience for the amazingly warm welcome and turnout. I wish to clarify one aspect of the “Two scientists lecture on faith” article, which appeared in the March 27 edition of The Collegian. It reports that I “presented on symmetries suggesting intelligent design.” Taken at face value, with lowercase “i” and “d,” this is accurate, though I did not use the phrase itself in my talk. Given the risk that a reader may associate this phrase with the movement going by the same name with capital letters, I wish to clarify that in no way did I intend my arguments to support this movement. 

My thesis was indeed that the symmetry, order, and mathematical elegance science has discovered in the laws of nature do support its origin in a creator who surpasses the intelligence of any being in the physical universe, something the Christian faith affirms as well. 

I do not believe, however, that any particular natural phenomena in the history of the universe, as complex and mind-boggling as they may be, require any “special” intervention by God other than the natural operation of the laws and constituents of the universe that he willed and continues to will into being. 

The ability of nature over enough time to bring forth both galaxies and octopi eyes reflects the dignity endowed upon it by its creator as well as the providence of the creator himself.

 

Christopher Lee is a theoretical physicist.