Slublog: My Thoughts on Intelligent Design

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August 03, 2005

My Thoughts on Intelligent Design

The problem with teaching ID in the classroom is that then you have to teach all the other creation stories, too. No one would think of teaching these other stories in a science class, and ID doesn't belong there, either.

"But ID isn't religion, it's science!" Well, actually, it isn't. It is only saying, "Because of certain problems with evolution, it can't be true, therefore we can talk about this alternative." The alternative, though, is not a testable prediction, indeed ID is not falsifiable either so there's two strikes against its status as science. It is merely the clever repackaging of the long-standing doubt that the blind mechanism of natural selection could produce the complexity we see in nature. The Argument from Personal Incredulity, though, is just a fancy from of the appeal to ignorance, or as it is more caustically named, "God of the Gaps."

Irreducible complexity is the problem cited with evolution, the reason given why we should consider intelligent design. Michael Behe published this in '97, but it was quickly shown to be lacking as a credible objection. Here is another, more detailed response to one of Behe's specific examples written by an outspokenly Christian biologist. In sum, steps have been described whereby several "irreducibly complex" systems such as the Venus fly trap can be developed purely through natural selection. With these explanations in hand, the yet unexplained systems such as the flagellum become arguments from ignorance. Just as Darwin is oft-quoted as saying that if one system could be shown to be impossible to result from natural selection then the whole idea falls apart, if one irreducibly complex system can be shown to result from natural selection then ID falls apart. Alas, this news hasn't made it to the apologetics section of your local Christian bookstore, the only place in America (besides the Kansas school board) where evolution is on the ropes. They know how to make money just like any other retailer: give the clientele what they want, in this case evolution-bashing.

My personal opinion is that God is the creator, that he created the universe with physical laws and constants that made the evolution of intelligent life possible if not inevitable, that in general science is credible and that its discoveries are genuine (not that they are infallible, but that we are able to explore an honest universe that appears as it actually is), and that the Bible is not intended to tell us about the function of the natural world. I furthermore believe, based on Hebrews 11:3, that we will never know when or whether God has intervened in the process between the Big Bang and us. If it could ever be scientifically proven that God had intervened, then we wouldn't need faith to know he is the Creator (much less that he exists). Indeed my appreciation for God as Creator has grown exponentially since I ditched young-earth creationism, not the other way around.

Posted by at August 3, 2005 09:42 AM

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Comments

There's an excellent book by Langdon Gilkey, Creationism on Trial. He was a professor of religion who worked hard to keep creationism from getting "equal time" in the science classes in Arkansas. The book is well worth reading by anybody on any side of the issues here.
Peace,
Tor

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