Evolution versus Design debate has been going on for quite long. The scientists' community firmly believes that evolution it is. Evolution, which essentially means coming into existence, through the mechanism of laws of nature, of random permutations and combinations of elements in nature that are able to persist and replicate themselves. It denies any intervention by a conscious power that shapes things in accordance with its will.
Evolution seems to be the correct theory on two counts - 1) The long, long time taken for life forms to emerge and evolve, and 2) Consciousness seen as arising from life and not the other way round. Thus, if a Consciousness existed before the emergence of life forms and it was this consciousness that designed the life forms, the time taken would have been much shorter, which is not the case.
Also, classical physics maintains that given an initial configuration, all future states will evolve strictly according to the inviolable laws of physics and no miracles or interventions by something non-material like consciousness can take place. This absolutely rules out anything like a free will.
Of course, given the vastness of our universe and unimaginably large number of entities (fundamental particles), it is not possible to exactly specify an initial configuration and apply the laws to each participating particle to compute future states. This is why even classical physics leans on statistical methods and probabilities. The second law of thermodynamics is an outstanding example of this. But this reliance on statistics and probabilities is not because of any non-determinism in the laws of physics but merely because of the extremely large numbers involved. It may not be out of place to mention here that Quantum Physics poses challenge to this determinism and asserts that probability is a fundamental thing that applies to each individual particle in existence and not merely to large aggregates.
Setting quantum physics aside for the moment, the play of probability in the classical sense because of extremely large numbers involved, lends credence to the long time taken for complex molecules to develop and life to arise. If some kind of consciousness or intelligence was involved, probably the time will be much shorter. This argument is supported by remarkably short time taken in discovering not naturally occurring new drug molecules first with human intelligence and now with help from more powerful AI. Please note the emphasis on 'not naturally occurring.'
And thus arises the logical dilemma. The extremely low probability of certain things happening merely through natural laws somehow gets powerfully boosted once consciousness and intelligence arrive at the scene. Thus while the probability of a structure like the Bhakhra Nangal dam arising on its own within a time frame of a couple of decades will be very close to zero, though technically non-zero, presence of intelligent human consciousness makes it almost certain within the same time frame.
And thus the intriguing question arises - Does presence of conscious human intelligence and the associated free will, somehow affect the operation of natural laws, thought to be inviolable in the classical realm? And if so, are consciousness and the quantum realm somehow related. And the bigger question is this - has consciousness arisen only now after evolution of advanced life forms? And if it was there all along why has evolution taken so long?
What I can say with certainty is that I look forward to your thoughts in the matter.
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