Intelligent Design in Finance and Economics? (Article 1 of 6)

Created: Monday, 03 October 2005 18:41
Written by Tom Lipp

Years before I became an accountant I wanted to become a nuclear physicist. Image that - what a switch! I loved science. I wanted to know how and why things worked. In high school I majored in science and won the science award. Then I came to know the Creator of it all, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. When I came to know Him and understood His incredible love and wisdom I was blown away and humbled. I decided it was more important to know the Creator than to scrutinize the creation. I decided to study administration (MBA) and accounting (CMA) so that I could have a flexible career. However, I always kept an interest in science, especially physics and astronomy. Have you noticed what has been happening recently in the scientific community? 

There is a major intellectual movement that is shaking the scientific world at its core. It is called intelligent design (ID). If you want to know more about it I recommend two videos available though Focus on the Family: Unlocking the Secrets of Life and The Privileged Planet.

During the last two decades scientists and philosophers have found that the natural laws and chance cannot explain everything in nature. Biological processes are so functionally complex that the probability of them developing without intelligent intervention is unimaginable.

Darwinian evolution popularized in his Origin of Species in 1859 is facing very serious challenges.Microbiologists have discovered motors at molecular levels that are mind-boggling in complexity. They have coined the term “irreducible complexity”. For example the flagellum (tail) that propels the single-celled e-coli bacteria is made up of forty complex individual molecules, each with its own function. An entire molecule works as a clutch. Imagine, molecules as customized motor components. When combined the machine is able to rotate at speeds of 100,000 rpm. For such an apparatus to work, all of these molecules would have had to come together at the same time and in the right order. If one molecule is missing or broken, the tail does not work at all. It is a perfect machine. Did this just come together by random processes? Unthinkable! Even atheistic scientists are conceding that highly sophisticated intelligence appears to be hard-wired into nature.

Darwinian evolution popularized in his Origin of Species in 1859 is facing very serious challenges. Personally, I think, it was only a matter of time before science caught up to biblical theology.

But what does that have to do with economics and finances? A lot. You see around the time of Darwin, there were also popular economists coming up with new ideas about micro and macro money management. This includes men such as Karl Marx, Frederic Engels, and John Maynard Keynes. All of them bought into Darwinian naturalism. They excluded the possibility of an intelligent designer and even more so the possibility of an intelligent maintainer. They deliberately dismissed God from their worldview. They promoted communism and socialism directed by big “G” government in centrally planned economies. Financial policies were set accordingly. For example, I heard that early in the history of the Soviet Union, the communist government, eager to break the habit of Sunday worship, decided to institute the 10-day week and to eliminate the 7-day week that pivoted around the Sabbath. This experiment in social economic engineering was a disaster and quickly abandoned.

I say all this to introduce as series of articles on this topic - contrasting Biblical economics with naturalistic or human centric economics.

Look for the following in the months ahead: What is Scarcity in an Open System? What is the Role of Prayer in Financial Planning? Should you “Pay Yourself First”? Is Insurance Help or a Hindrance? Why Have Lotteries Grown In Popularity? How to Budget by the Book! Stay tuned and keep reading.