Alex, thank you very much for linking those youtubes. My science education is almost nonexistent and learning it is almost beyond my ability at this stage in life. But visuals like these youtubes are really good.
ID goes back at least to 1829. I doubt it was called that back then but I found the exact ideas that people are preaching/teaching these days in an essay "The Bible and the Natural World," by Archibald Alexander of Princeton Theological Seminary, published in the January 1829 issue of the Princeton Review. I read it in The Princeton Theology 1812-1921: Scripture, Science, and Theological Method from Archibald Alexander to Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, edited by Mark A. Noll, 1983.
I will copy a few quotes to show that the theory has not changed a bit in nearly two centuries. The page numbers will refer to Noll's book.
Quote:
These sages...have been led to inquire, whence all these things? Have they always existed? or have they been produced?...[I]t may seem that it would have been an easy thing for any rational mind to ascend, at once, from the creature to the invisible Creator....A considerable number of those called philosophers entertained the opinion that the universe always existed as we now behold it. (p. 93).
Quote:
Others of those called philosophers...but, not being able to rise to the conception of a Creator--or...not liking to retain the idea of God in their minds...invented the hypothesis of the eternal existence of the elements...which they supposed to consist of atoms...These atoms, possessing various affinities, came together in every conceivable form of organized bodies, until, by degrees, and in a long process of time, the universe assumed its present aspect, and vegetables and animals of every species were produced by the fortuitous concourse of atoms.
Such a hypothesis might seem too absurd [to be believed by the] rational mind....[A]ll systems of atheism may be said to stand on a perfect level; for no folly can be conceived greater than that which says, "there is no God" (p. 94)
Quote:
A just and impartial consideration of the universe, cannot fail to lead the sincere seeker of truth to the opinion, that there must exist a great first cause, powerful and intelligent, who has made the world for some particular end (p. 95).
Quote:
If a watch or steam-engine could not be formed by the accidental aggregation of particles, brought together by the winds or waves, how can we suppose that such a structure as a completely organized animal body could be formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms? (p. 95)
This idea was introduced by William Paley in Natural Theology in 1802, according to Noll's footnote.
Quote:
Without light the eye would be useless, but when we examine the mechanism of this organ, and observe that it is constructed upon the most perfect principles of optics, can we for a moment hesitate to believe that the eye was formed by a designing agent to receive, refract, and concentrate the rays of light for the purposes of vision? (p. 96)
Quote:
The Bible furnishes the full and satisfactory commentary on the book of nature. With the Bible in our hands, the heavens shine with redoubled lustre. The universe, which to the atheist is full of darkness and confusion, to the Christian is resplendent with light and glory. The first sentence in the Bible contains more to satisfy the inquisitive mind than all the volumes of human speculation. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Here, in a few words, is comprehended the most sublime of all truths--the production of a universe out of nothing by the word of the Almighty. If God created the heavens and the earth, then he existed before they were brought forth--even from eternity; for he who gives beginning to all other things can have none himself (p. 96).
Several points I have tried to make are his belief in (not necessarily in this order):
* questions about origins/meaning of life naturally lead to a Creator
* God as the Intelligent Designer
* stupid atheist vs rational Christian
* only one possible explanation makes sense regarding the origins of the universe
* God must of necessity be the First Cause (this is spelled out more explicitly in his essay; I would have to go beyond the limits of "fair use" copyright policy to copy it)
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