Am I defending Intelligent Design Theory?

In several recent posts I sound like I’m defending Intelligent Design Theory. In fact, I am and I am not. The situation is not as simple as an up or down vote in Congress (I suppose that’s a poor analogy.) It is both simpler and more complex than that.

My aim is to confuse, and I most likely have done that in a mere four sentences. But let’s try to figure this thing out. Such figuring is not easy in these days of hot debate and the throwing around of terms and the throwing up of dust. (But let me be clear: we won’t figure it out in one blog post—or if I should blog about the subject until the proverbial bovines return to their domicile.)

First, let’s make some distinctions. Intelligent Design Theory is not the same as Biblical Creationism. The ID theorists are trying (if the evolutionists, the press and the general public would let them) to approach their ideas as pure science. They are smart people and they know how to separate their science from their theology. (Whether that is a good thing or not I will discuss later.) Their main premises are that (1) living systems are too complex to have been produced by blind chance and natural selection, and (2) evidence of intelligence can be detected in the design of living systems. In their personal beliefs, supporters of ID are all over the map. Some are theistic evolutionists; some may be Biblical Creationists others, agnostics. Their religions range from Protestant to Roman Catholic to Unification Church to Judaism—and probably many others.

Biblical Creationists, on the other hand, openly admit to using God’s Word as the basis of their worldview and as their approach to science. In their operational (experimental) science—science in which repeatable experimentation and falsification are the rule—they operate under the belief that God created and sustains His universe by laws that can be discovered by science (thinking God’s thoughts after Him.) In studying prehistory, however, Biblical Creationists realize that different rules apply. The past is not subject to repeatable experimentation. Evidence (the same evidence that any scientist has available) must be interpreted according to un-provable (in the scientific sense) assumptions and philosophical (religious, if you prefer) presuppositions. This is where God’s Word must take precedence over purely naturalistic assumptions and must act as the guidebook for the interpretation of evidence.

People claiming to be Biblical Creationists also come in a variety of flavors, ranging from YECs (Young Earth Creationists,) OECs (Old Earth Creationists,) Theistic Evolutionists, Progressive Creationists, etc. Of course, I believe that only one of these flavors has any real taste--is consistent with the grammatical/historical interpretation of the Bible.

Bioman from Jersey proudly (or humbly) wears a YEC t-shirt and is blessed to be persecuted for his position (So there, now you know—and probably suspected) I believe that any other position severely compromises God’s Word and the gospel—in fact, God’s whole plan of salvation. And that is the last thing any Christian should be doing. I realize that sincere people hold to other positions, but I believe that sincerity, by itself, plus $2 will get you a ride on the NYC subway (unless the fare has gone up again.)

That brings us to my original question: am I defending Intelligent Design Theory? The answer now is the same as I started with—yes and no. I believe that, as far as it goes, ID is a legitimate scientific approach to the study of origins. While it is not strictly inductive and open to falsification, neither is any other study of the past, in spite of the claims of materialist scientists.

My gripe with ID is that it doesn’t go far enough. It refuses to openly identify and honor the Intelligent Designer and is therefore legitimately criticized by its opponents, including Charles Krauthammer, whom I blasted in a previous blog post. If the ID-ers are not willing to openly admit their theological position(s) they will continue to be lambasted by unbelieving critics as committers of subterfuge and fraud. Better to admit their theistic assumptions and be persecuted as fools (I Corinthians 1:27) That is not an easy thing for a scientist to do—it will cost him dearly. But that is what Christianity is all about, is it not?

The issues here are broader and deeper than I have stated and range from the definition of science to the really big issue: Who created, cursed, sustains—and soon will redeem the created universe? Let’s face it—there are believers and there are unbelievers, and He knows who they are. Soli Deo Gloria.