Crystal-clear case for a well-ordered universe

THE logic in Fr Con McGillicuddy’s argument for a designed universe (Letters, September 17) is actually very difficult to see. There are a number of problems with his argument.

1. The four seasons are hardly indicative of a loving designer since in that case the designer must only love those people who live between the poles and the tropics.

2. It is a fallacy to claim that “where there is design, there must be a designer”. Crystals are regular and ordered, but have no designer: they grow naturally. Snowflakes are another example.

3. The complexity of the earth and the universe do not indicate the existence of a designer. Simple things exist that have been designed and complex things exist that have not.

4. If complexity does indicate design, then an all-powerful designer of the universe must be an extremely complex being. So who or what designed the designer? By Fr McGillicuddy’s own argument, the designer cannot have arisen by accident.

If the designer always existed, or designed himself, then what is the difference between this and saying that the universe always existed or “designed” itself? A rebuttal of Fr McGillicuddy’s case is in fact contained in Richard Dawkins’s book, The God Delusion — the very publication Fr McGillicudy wishes to argue against.

Orlaith Ní Challanáin

5 Somerton Road

Ballinlough

Cork