Design can appear without intelligence

I appreciated the letter by Steward E. Brekke in which he was honest enough to say there is design in the origin of life and that “the design theory of life’s origins should be taught since there is some evidence for that.”

However, it sounds to me that design can appear without intelligence behind it. Design is an orderly arrangement of parts. A junk pile has no orderly arrangement of parts and therefore we see no intelligence regarding its make up. But an automobile has design, an orderly arrangement of parts that fit together for a particular purpose.

Don’t we, therefore, conclude that the orderly arrangement of parts, its design, has an intelligent designer? Is it therefore proper to teach in a science class that design in living things suggests an intelligent designer?

Elton Heimsoth

Lombard