On the way back from a trip to the Carolinas I heard one of the authors of this book "The Privilged Planet" on a radio show. Sounds like a good introduction to the idea of intelligent design. He mentioned many unique attributes of Earth including how it lies in the "Goldilocks zone" where it is just hot enough to have liquid water but not too cold to freeze. He also mentioned that if the universe was in fact a result of many random, chance accidents with no design, as some would argue, then it would seem virtually impossible for humans to comprehend it at all--and yet we do. He quoted Einstein: "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
Richards also has a suggestion: before engaging in a argument about intelligent design, ask another person "if the universe had a design to it, how could we tell? what kind of evidence would there be?" and go from there.
If the universe was free of any sort of intelligent design, how is it that humans can pick up on so many patterns, theories, and laws of the universe? If life is just a billion random, chance, events, each with no common pattern or design with the others, how could a human mind make sense of the world?
The Privileged Planet by Jay Richards et al.
http://www.privilegedplanet.com/
Jay Richards has more good ideas at his site on the American Enterprise Institute
http://www.aei-ideas.org/author/jrichards/
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