Claim CI001.1:
Intelligent design (ID) is scientific, not religious.
Response:
- The ID movement is motivated by and inseparable from a narrow religious
viewpoint. In the words of its founders and leaders:
There's a difference of opinion about how important this debate
[advocating intelligent design] is. What I always say is that it's
not just scientific theory. The question is best understood as: Is
God real or imaginary? (Phillip Johnson, "The Search for Intelligent
Design in the Universe", Silicon Valley Magazine, 9 Jan. 2000.)
"We are taking an intuition most people have [the belief in God] and
making it a scientific and academic enterprise. We are removing the
most important cultural roadblock to accepting the role of God as
creator. (Phillip Johnson, "Enlisting Science to Find the
Fingerprints of a Creator", LA Times, 25 Mar. 2001.)
Our strategy has been to change the subject a bit so that we can get
the issue of intelligent design, which really means the reality of
God, before the academic world and into the schools (P. Johnson 2003).
"Father's words, my studies, and my prayers convinced me that I should
devote my life to destroying Darwinism, just as many of my fellow
Unificationists had already devoted their lives to destroying Marxism.
When Father chose me (along with about a dozen other seminary
graduates) to enter a Ph.D. program in 1978, I welcomed the
opportunity to prepare myself for battle (J. Wells n.d.).
If we take seriously the word-flesh Christology of Chalcedon (i.e.
the doctrine that Christ is fully human and fully divine) and view
Christ as the telos toward which God is drawing the whole of creation,
then any view of the sciences that leaves Christ out of the picture
must be seen as fundamentally deficient. (William Dembski,
Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology,
Downers
Grove, InterVarsity Press, 1999.)
"Intelligent design is just the Logos theology of John's Gospel
restated in the idiom of information theory (Dembski 1999, 84).
Johnson said he and most others in the intelligent design movement
believe the designer is the God of the Bible (Maynard 2001).
See Poindexter (2003) for more such quotes.
- Intelligent design is explicitly religious as a motive for legislative
change of educational standards. Legislation introduced in Michigan
attempts to add "intelligent design of a Creator" to the science
standards of middle and high school (Michigan House Bill 4946).
- Several books on intelligent design are published by InterVarsity
Press, which says of itself,
Who is Intervarsity Press? We are a publisher of Christian books and
Bible studies.
As an extension of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA,
InterVarsity Press serves those in the university, the church and
the world by publishing resources that equip and encourage people to
follow Jesus as Savior and Lord in all of life. (IVP n.d.)
The video "Unlocking the Mystery of Life" purportedly "tells the story
of contemporary scientists who are advancing a powerful but
controversial idea -- the theory of intelligent design." But it was
produced by and promoted almost exclusively by fundamentalist Christian
organizations (Evans 2003).
- The ID movement attempts to hide its religious basis in order to give
the appearance of secular objectivity (Branch 2002). Their attempt is
dishonest propaganda. "The trend among many Christian groups these
days is to camouflage their creationism as 'Intelligent Design' or
'Progressive Creationism' " (Morris 1999). And despite their claims,
the movement has no science.
- Intelligent design is blatantly anti-religious if the religion is one
they disagree with. For example, Phillip Johnson equates theistic
evolution (which would include most of Christianity) with atheism
because of its acceptance of evolution.
Links:
Poindexter, Brian. 2003. The horse's mouth.
http://home.roadrunner.com/~bnpndxtr/download/HorsesMouth-BP007.pdf
References:
- Branch, G. 2002. Evolving banners at the Discovery Institute.
Reports of the National Center for Science Education 22(5): 12.
http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/4116_evolving_banners_at_the_discov_8_29_2002.asp
- Dembski, William. 1999. Signs of intelligence: A primer on the
discernment of intelligent design. Touchstone 12(4) (Jul/Aug):
76-84.
- Evans, Skip. 2003. Who promotes Unlocking the Mystery of Life?
http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/articles/6304_who_promotes_iunlocking_the__7_3_2003.asp
- IVP Online. n.d. About us.
http://www.gospelcom.net/ivpress/info/aboutus/
- Johnson, Phillip. 2003. American Family Radio, Jan. 10, 2003.
- Maynard, Steve. 2001. Life's intelligent design. Tacoma News
Tribune, May 7, 2001.
http://www.arn.org/docs/news/lifesintelligentdesign050701.htm
- Michigan House Bill 4946. July 2, 2003, House introduced bill.
http://www.michiganlegislature.org/mileg.asp?page=getObject&objName=2003-HB-4946
- Morris, John D., 1999. Open letter included with mailing of April 1999
Acts and Facts.
- Poindexter, B. 2003. (see above)
- Wells, Jonathan. n.d. Darwinism: Why I went for a second Ph.D.,
Unification Church.
http://www.tparents.org/library/unification/talks/wells/DARWIN.htm
Further Reading:
Brauer, Matthew J., Barbara Forrest and Steven G. Gey. 2005.
Is it science yet?: Intelligent design creationism and the Constitution.
Washington University Law Quaterly 83(1): 1-149.
http://law.wustl.edu/WULQ/83-1/p%201%20Brauer%20Forrest%20Gey%20book%20pages.pdf
created 2003-5-30, modified 2005-10-14