Replies

Not at all. My two peasants had never seen one before, just as Marco Polo had never seen gun powder before he visited China. He didn't assume that if "evolved" from mud, did he?

The orthodox faith of evolutionists is indeed a profound and frightening thing
--
Then its a new analogy, but equally flawed. Marco Polo was TOLD by people that gunpowder was created. He also got to see it being made.
As for the peasants, if they had never seen clocks before, then they could take it home with them and examine it for evidence. If they did that they would, if they were clever enough, be able to see certain marks on the wood of the clock. They could then realise that those marks looked VERY like the sort of marks you get on wood when it was sawed. they would also be able to see that it was painted, and they would know that painting was a human activity. They would also be able to see that it was held together by screws, or nails and they would use screws and nails themselves. All of which would give them the opportunity to test their theory about the origin of the clock. However, as we have no knowledge of the methods used by some "intelligent designer" of bacteria flagella, how would we be able to test for artefacts of this creation?

However, as we have no knowledge of the methods used by some "intelligent designer" of bacteria flagella, how would we be able to test for artefacts of this creation?

Well, of course! "We" call it an accident, a mutation--and violate the very foundation of science itself, that the universe behaves according to observable and recordable, (albeit complex) laws.

Then its a new analogy, but equally flawed. Marco Polo was TOLD by people that gunpowder was created.

This is where C.S. Lewis was right. Scientists verge on being cultural dimwits. You don't think stories of of the Grand Designer are "told" from one generation to another? You don't think the Bible--which brought order and civilization to countless savage cultures around the globe--is a record of "telling?"

If someone rushes up to you and says, "heah, I can't explain this, but I just saw a Gallilean carpenter raise a man from the dead," you can dismiss this out of hand, or you can perhaps admit that there is a super-natural power that stands above the physical world, that defines the phsyical world, that explains the physical world. If you reject this theory, you spend a fruitless life looking for gap species in the mud.