Rick: One of the problems that we have here, is that Kenny won't acknowledge metaphysics. It seems to me, that if it can't be measured scientifically, then he believes it doesn't exist. Science is the "tool" for the natural world and metaphysics is the "tool" for something not part of the natural world.
That Ken doesn't realize that whatever science cannot measure - which would be anything before the Big Bang began - IS metaphysics - that is, it's beyond physical measurement and the scope of what the scientific method is equipped to measure and assess. But that's not his greatest problem - which is failure to recognize that the massive complexity, functionalities, interactive synergies, interactivities, intricate designs, and collectively supportive precision of these many things require intelligence, as blind, non-intelligent things could not assemble what we, intelligent and curious beings with great capacity to analyze, plan, learn, create, and investigate can scarcely understand, much less replicate it beyond some simple experiments or tiny components of - and that comes from studying what already exists. It is not reasonable to think all of these many astounding things science ponders could have assembled itself. And that is evident, even from the Big Bangs's beginning minutes!
Also,
intelligence cannot be learned! Intelligence is "the ability to acquire and apply
knowledge and skills." So, either a thing already has this intelligence and ability or it does not. Without an already existing intelligence, NO first thing could have begun creating or designing ANYTHING else. Blind, non-intelligent things cannot learn, because they don't have this ability. And that ability cannot evolve. Only an already intelligent thing can use that intelligence to build knowledge and skills.
Lastly, beyond all of the massive complexity requiring intelligence, the universe required that A) things came into existence and B) that those things were the very ones necessary to creating a universe that instantly begin changing evermore progressively with precision and purpose to eventually support life on earth. And C) the components alone did not create the first life - once again, this took intelligence. And that first simple cellular life - it was MASSIVELY complex!
Consider what molecular biologist Michael Behe has said about a single cell:
“To grasp the reality of life as it has been revealed by molecular biology, we must magnify a cell a thousand million times until it is twenty kilometers in diameter and resembles a giant airship large enough to cover a great city like London or New York. What we would then see would be an object of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design. On the surface of the cell we would see millions of openings, like the port holes of a vast space ship, opening and closing to allow a continual stream of materials to flow in and out. If we were to enter one of these openings we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity.”
“Molecular biology has shown that even the simplest of all living systems on the earth today, bacterial cells, are exceedingly complex objects. Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, weighing less than 10-12 grams, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred-thousand-million atoms, far more complicated than any machine built by man and absolutely without parallel in the nonliving world.”
Now, noting its complexity (above), to believe the first cell could have assembled itself is simply not rational! Not to mention, it was completely dependent upon the incredible designs and complexities that appeared within mere minutes of the Big Bang's beginning. There is NO science that explains any of this - beyond basic understandings of WHAT happened - but not WHY it happened (the far bigger question!).
To summarize, Ken must believe in magic, if he thinks non-intelligent things could create, design, and coordinate the massive complexity of the early and present universe, or produce life, millions of species, etc. - in which there is only one creature like us, with our intelligence and capacity. And when one applies mathematical probabilities to these many massively complex things individually coming into existence AND their collective assemblage and coordination - with ALL of its building blocks coming into existence withing mere minutes - well, there's just no reasonable logic to believe there was no powerful Super Intelligence responsible for it all!