how Intelligent Design keeps things from being too bleak

Imagine what the universe would be like if the Darwinists were correct, if we were all here by blind accident, somehow alive on a speck of dust in the vast ocean of space, but with no reason to be here, and no one who put us here. It would be like discovering that we had no parents, but were orphans with no one caring about us one way or the other. How sad would that be? It would be a little bit like the way it is to be born into a Hindu family, perhaps, where the religion around you is all completely false. But it would be even worse than that - because you would be AWARE that you were alone and there would be NO hope for salvation or an afterlife.

Intelligent Design, though, gives us hope, because it implies that somewhere out there someone or something IS looking after us. Maybe the Christians are wrong and we just rot when we get buried in the ground and there isn't any such thing as a soul (perhaps - and I'm playing Devil's advocate here - it was all a big swindle to keep peasants from revolting during the Middle Age - elites promised them something good after they died if only they'd shut up and work). But even if the basic promise of Christianity should prove wrong, with Intelligent Design there is nevertheless a REASON for us to be here. Someone cared enough about us to MAKE us, or at least make the little parts of us that would one day lead to our BEING. That gives me a lot of comfort that I frankly don't get from regular science. Galileo gives me no comfort by telling me the Sun is the center of the Universe. Newton gives me no comfort by saying that objects in space move around under the effects of a simple set of inviolate laws. The Second Law of Themodynamics gives me no comfort when it says that all things are moving towards greater decay and disorder.

Only Intelligent Design gives me any assurance that the Universe is a kindly place that cares about me in any way. I imagine a lot of students who might otherwise be scared away from science will be led back to it by the good news that Intelligent Design provides.