Knowing - By Design Or By Chance

Recently Nicholas Cage starrer Knowing has hit the theatres.I came to know about this movie from my Flixter updates.After reading the storyline I just can't wait to watch this movie.Not sure,when'll that happen.It deals with a very basic question of philosophy and science that has been a constant source of debate among scholars.To me a constant source of quest.Are we here today as part of grand scheme designed by some divine force or just by chance?Let me quickly try to explain the two school of thoughts.


Whenever we look around the various objects and processes in the world around us we see a great symmetry and balance.Everything is in the right proportion to make life survive on this planet - right temperature level,right mix of gases in the atmosphere,trees and animals exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide in a cooperative manner etc.Moreover all these processes and forms are not only well designed but complex in terms of both structure and behavior.So when we try to find out the source of this complex and well designed scheme we may think of some other intelligence behind this.As we are intelligent the entity, designing the process of our creation and survival has to be done by some super intelligent or divine agent.Remember The Architect in Matrix?.
There is another school of thought which states life on earth had a very simple beginning.It happened all by chance.By sheer chance climatic conditions and several inorganic compounds came in contact with each other to form organic molecules.From which somehow originated single cells able to replicate themselves and propagate life on earth.This happened through step by step transformations applied on simpler forms whose output was driven by chance and randomness.The incremental changes were or still are simple and imperceptible but the cumulative outcome is a complex one over thousands of years.This idea is driven by Darwin's Theory of Evolution By Natural Selection.I am stating a nice example to explain this, taken from the book "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins.In a sea shore we can find that the pebbles are not arranged absolutely at random.The larger ones occupy different zones.This apparently might seem to be well designed but actually driven by laws of mechanics (collision between waves & pebbles) which is working out a order amidst randomness.Obviously the followers of other school might argue that waves and pebbles are just executing a a sophisticated algorithm designed by the Great One.
As of now there is no end to this debate.The first school of thought has actually made their job easy by introducing this all powerful super intelligent architect.For other team the job is tougher because they have to prove every bit of what they are saying:poor fellas have taken a scientific route.
In this movie Nicholas Cage plays a MIT professor who belongs to the second school of thought.He accidentally opens a time capsule at his son's school which contains accurate prediction of major world events in the past 50 years and also predicts about a global catastrophe in near future.Let's watch the movie to find out whether it's just another sci-fi disaster movie or we can know something from Knowing.