In light of my recent post about the Founding Fathers, I thought I'd share this quote from Thomas Jefferson (which comes from a letter he wrote to John Adams, April 11, 1823)...
"I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the Universe, in its parts general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition.
The movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by the balance of centrifugal and centripedal forces, the structure of our earth itself, with its distribution of lands, waters and atmosphere, animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles, insects mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organised as man or mammoth, the mineral substances, their generation and uses, it is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe that there is, in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their preserver and regulator while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their regenerator into new and other forms."
**UPDATE, JUL. 16, 2009**
For more on the link between T.J. and Intelligent Design, click on these 2 articles…
Jefferson’s Support for Intelligent Design (Stephen C. Meyer, Boston Globe, Jul. 15, 2009)
New Scientist and Jerry Coyne's Responses to ID Advocate Thomas Jefferson: Cases of Necromancy and Alzheimer's (David Klinghoffer, Evolution News and Views, Jul. 16, 2009)
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