Tag Archives: Evolution

Intelligent Design

How Do We Distinguish Between Young Earth Creation, Theistic Science, and Intelligent Design? – Part 2

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Theistic Science

The idea of theistic science, as proposed by Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland, is to expose scientific inquiry to the world of Christian revelation.  As such, it does not actually posit a particular creation hypothesis, but instead draws out guidelines for Christians who wish to integrate theology with scientific research.  Thus theistic science, as an umbrella framework, encompasses many kinds of theistic creation hypotheses, including young earth creation.  J. P. Moreland describes theistic science as “rooted in the idea that Christians ought to consult all they know or have reason to believe in forming and testing hypotheses, in explaining things in science, and in evaluating the plausibility of various scientific hypotheses, and among the things they should consult are propositions of theology.”[1]

Moreland continues to explain that theistic science is a research program that relies on the truth of two propositions.  The first proposition is that “God, conceived as a personal, transcendent agent of great power and intelligence, has through direct, primary agent causation and indirect, secondary causation created and designed the world for a purpose and has directly intervened in the course of its development at various times (including prehistory, history prior to the arrival of human beings).” [2]  The second proposition is that the “commitment expressed in proposition 1 can appropriately enter into the very fabric of the practice of science and the utilization of scientific methodology.”[3]  Moreland’s concept of theistic science leaves the mechanisms and details of God’s intervention undefined and open to debate, and so any number of creation hypotheses that invoke God as the purposeful creator of the world fit well within theistic science.  Just as C. S. Lewis attempted to define mere Christianity, Moreland attempts to define mere creation.  What theistic science rejects is any philosophy of science that disallows the activity of a purposeful creator.  It also rejects any theology that denies the empirical detectability of God’s active intervention.  Some Christians hold that God indeed created the universe and the life within it, but they deny that these creation events can in any way be detected from empirical evidence; in their view, God only operates through secondary causes, or natural law.  Moreland allows for secondary causation, but he insists that one be open to primary agent causation as well.

Stay tuned for another post explaining how intelligent design relates to theistic science and young earth creation.

[1] Moreland, J. P, “Theistic Science and Methodological Naturalism,” in The Creation Hypothesis, ed. J. P. Moreland (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 41.

[2] Ibid., 41-42.

[3] Ibid., 42.

Intelligent Design

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" Review

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I finally saw this movie last night with a group of friends I invited over to the house.  To get right to the bottom line, I thought it was very good and would highly recommend it.  The movie is not about explaining intelligent design, but about pointing out the persecution of those who think intelligent design may be a scientific hypothesis worth pursuing.  If you want a good explanation of the ideas of ID, this is not the movie for you.

The movie highlights several cases of people losing their jobs, losing tenure, and/or having their research shut down at major universities and institutions, including the Smithsonian.  I was already familiar with all of these cases because I follow the ID movement, but the folks who came to my house were all shocked and surprised at the level of persecution.  None of them were familiar with the controversy and it frankly fired them up.

I don’t think this movie will change any minds in the anti-ID camp, but I do think that folks who have never thought about this controversy will be impacted by the movie.  The producers and Ben Stein made a potentially dry subject quite entertaining.  It’s definitely not a boring documentary.

I’m interested to hear what others thought of the movie, so leave some comments if you’ve seen it, but only if you’ve seen it.

Intelligent Design

Simple Explanation of Intelligent Design Theory

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The theory of Intelligent Design, as promoted by organizations such as the Discovery Institute, is one of the most misunderstood and mischaracterized theories in the mass media you will ever see.  A typical newspaper or TV reporter will say something like this: “Intelligent Design is the theory that biological organisms are really complex, and so God must have created them.”  Perhaps you’ve seen it reported this way.  I know that I have many, many times.

Well, if that’s not the true definition, then what is it?  I believe it can be defined in two simple statements:

  1. Intelligent agents sometimes leave behind detectable empirical evidence of their activity.
  2. There exists, in biological life, detectable empirical evidence of intelligent agency.

Statement 1 is hardly controversial.  Many scientific fields detect signs of intelligence: cryptography, archaeology, forensic pathology, just name a few.  In our every day lives, we routinely detect signs of intelligence.  When we see “I love Coke!” written in the sky, we don’t assume that it’s an unusual cloud formation.  We assume that an intelligent agent, namely a sky-writing pilot, left the message.  When we look at Mount Rushmore, we don’t think the faces got there from wind and erosion.  We know that somebody sculpted those faces – an intelligent being.

Intelligent Design theory just uses the exact same techniques that are used in other scientific fields that detect intelligence, and applies it to biological organisms.  When we look at biological organisms, we detect signs of intelligent agency.  There are numerous examples of these signs, but one of them is the existence of DNA.  DNA is composed of a four-letter biological alphabet and is mathematically equivalent to any other kind of language.  One human cell contains DNA that is the equivalent of 5 million pages of information, and your body has trillions of cells!

Take a look at these two photos side by side.  The one on the left is the view of a stained glass window in a cathedral and the one on the right is the view down the axis of a DNA double helix.  If that doesn’t give you a little pause, I can’t help you…

window-double-helix1