Is the universe designed? Yes and no.
Addressing the title's question from the perspective of Whitehead's process theology, fourteen basic notions of which are explained, I argue that the universe is not designed in six common senses of that notion: It was not created out of nothing, all at once, through punctuated creationism, from a blueprint, solely for humans, or even with humans specifically in mind. But it is designed in two looser senses of the term: It reflects a divine aim at richness of experience, and it involved a divine establishment of this cosmic epoch's fundamental contingent principles--an idea that is consistent with process theism's view of divine power as purely persuasive.
Griffin
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Center for Process Studies, Claremont School of Theology, California 91711, USA. davraygrif@aol.com
D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D006801:Humans; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D028725:Theology