Should Intelligent Design be taught alongside Evolution? Over the last several posts we have presented evidence against Darwinian evolution as the answer for the origin of life and all that we see in and around us. Even Neo-Darwinian theories fall flat when held up against the available evidence for the Intelligent Design Model. Intelligent Design as the means for the origin of life is supported by evidence in various disciplines including cosmology, physics, biology, and chemistry.
Biblical creation and the theory of “Intelligent Design” has by far the most reasonable evidence, and in abundance, so why is it so quickly dismissed in the scientific community?
I believe the heart of this answer comes from one of the world’s leaders in evolutionary biology Professor Richard Lewontin, Geneticist (and self-proclaimed Marxist), when he said:
“Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism.
It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.“
What is the theory of Intelligent Design?
“Intelligent design refers to a scientific research program as well as a community of scientists, philosophers and other scholars who seek evidence of design in nature. The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. Through the study and analysis of a system’s components, a design theorist is able to determine whether various natural structures are the product of chance, natural law, intelligent design, or some combination thereof. Such research is conducted by observing the types of information produced when intelligent agents act. Scientists then seek to find objects which have those same types of informational properties which we commonly know come from intelligence. Intelligent design has applied these scientific methods to detect design in irreducibly complex biological structures, the complex and specified information content in DNA, the life-sustaining physical architecture of the universe, and the geologically rapid origin of biological diversity in the fossil record during the Cambrian explosion.” (Definition taken from the Center for Science and Culture)
Watch the 36 minute presentation by Sean McDowell called “Understanding Intelligent Design:”
Creation and the theory of Intelligent Design is not new. It has been the antithesis of evolution from the beginning. In the mid 1800’s William Paley, a British Christian Apologist, coined this argument against Darwin’s theory of evolution and it still stands as unanswered by evolutionists today:
William Paley’s Watchmaker Analogy:
“If you found a rare antique pocket watch lying in the forest and picked it up, examining its complexity and marveling at its unique features, which of the following would you infer?”
- What a creative and intelligent watchmaker there must have been to have made such a beautiful, unique and complex design!
or…
- How fascinating it is that the dirt, leaves and microbes in the area here just happen to evolve, by natural selection, over billions of years into such a beautiful and complex piece!
Today there are more and more reputable scientists who are promoting an equal hearing for Intelligent Design because it provides hard core science facts that demand to be heard in the main stream science community and the public school arena.
One of the premiere hubs for this kind of work is at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. Their purpose is to “advance the understanding that human beings and nature are the result of intelligent design rather than a blind and undirected process. They seek long-term scientific and cultural change through cutting-edge scientific research and scholarship; education and training of young leaders; communication to the general public; and advocacy of academic freedom and free speech for scientists, teachers, and students. The Center has 40 affiliated academic Fellows representing disciplines such as physics, astronomy, chemistry, molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, mathematics, history and philosophy of science, law and political science. These Fellows are scholars who do research, writing, and speaking on topics relating to the Center.” (Taken from the Center of Science and Culture’s Mission Statement)
Director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture is Dr. Steven C. Meyer. Meyer is a Philosopher of science and a former geophysicist and college professor. “He has authored most recently the New York Times best seller Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design (Harper One, 2013) as well as Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (Harper One, 2009), which was named a Book of the Year by the prestigious Times (of London) Literary Supplement in 2009.
Meyer’s other publications include ten chapter contributions to the 2015 collection of essays Debating Darwin’s Doubt as well as contributions to, and the editing of, the peer-reviewed volume Darwinism, Design and Public Education (Michigan State University Press, 2004) and the innovative textbook Explore Evolution (Hill House Publishers, 2007). He has published editorials in national newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The National Post (of Canada), The Daily Telegraph (of London) and The Los Angeles Times.
He has appeared on national television and radio programs such as The Jim Lehrer News Hour, NBC Nightly News, ABC Nightly News, CBS Sunday Morning, Nightline, Fox News Live, Paula Zahn Now (CNN), Good Morning America and the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS. In 2008, he appeared with Ben Stein in Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. He is featured prominently in the science documentaries Icons of Evolution, Unlocking The Mystery of Life, and Darwin’s Dilemma, as well as two New York Times front-page stories and attention in other top national media.
Meyer’s expertise includes examining and explaining the amazing depth of digital technology found in each and every living cell, such as nested coding, digital processing, distributive retrieval and storage systems, and genomic operating systems. Meyer has been developing a more fundamental argument for intelligent design that is based not on a single feature like the bacterial flagellum, but rather on a pervasive feature of all living systems. Alongside matter and energy, Dr. Meyer shows that there is a third fundamental entity in the universe needed for life: information.” (Taken from Meyer’s biography)
Watch Meyer bring this theory to light in an easy to understand 50 minute presentation:
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You will not find this material in the public school curriculum even though it is based on solid evidence and grounded in research. It is ironic that following the evidence to where it leads stops at the door of our public schools as they will not let a “Divine footprint” in! Join us as we examine evidence for Christianity and learn how to become a thoughtful defender and ambassador of your faith.
Click into the resource page of this website to view many of the top Christian thinkers and apologists along with some of their work; connecting to these types of resources is essential in your Christian growth.
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Teri Dugan
TeriDugan@truthfaithandreason.com
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