Imagine a walk in the woods. Along the path you spotted arrangement of sticks that form the letter A.
You find it interesting but no more so than a wildflower or a small waterfall. But suppose you
encounter formation of sticks and spell out the worlds longest palindrome, “ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW
ELBA.” You immediately conclude that someone created the arrangement. The design was surely the
work of a designer. This is intelligent design (ID.) But, there is a very small but finite probability that
the formation of sticks was a result of wind and gravity. No one would bet on that but it could happen.
ID recognizes that certain features of the natural world are best explained as resulting from an
intelligent source. This is inference to the best explanation.
Relative Human Efficiency (RHE) takes this a step further. Nearly everyone that you know over the
age of seven could easily duplicate the arrangement of sticks spelling the palindrome. The ability of
humans to reproduce naturally current occurring events is RHE. It is defined as follows. Events that
result from unguided natural forces can easily be duplicated by human effort providing the
requirements of space, time, matter and energy are within human capabilities. It is not generally
recognized how much more adept people are than nature. Assume the letter “A” resulting from falling
twigs is 1000 to 1. The probability of the reader doing it is 100 percent. To spell the first word of the
palindrome by chance would be 1 trillion to one. For human effort it is still one to one. To complete the
sentence the probability for nature would be approximately one in 10 to the 60th power. For you and
me it still 1 to 1. The difference between the ability of people and nature is as close to infinite is
anything that can be demonstrated. As such RHE is a valid test of what nature is able to do. If we can’t
do it it didn’t happen!