The New New Creationism: Intelligent Design

11 Oct 2005 •

Several notes on this Intelligent Design crap driving us toward another Scopes trial.

US President Jimmy Carter, and an evangelical Christian:

“As a Christian, a trained engineer and scientist, and a professor at Emory University, I am embarrassed by Superintendent Kathy Cox’s [Georgia Public Schools] attempt to censor and distort the education of Georgia’s students. The existing and long-standing use of the word ‘evolution’ in our state’s textbooks has not adversely affected Georgians’ belief in the omnipotence of God as creator of the universe.”

The President continues, with my favorite part of his statements. This is exactly what doesn’t make sense about the ID and creationist nuts. There is no incompatibility between science and the general faith tenets. Perhaps there are some issues raised with the strict Biblical account, but add them to a huge list already out there that still does not shake most people’s faith as they often pick and choose what to take at face value, what to interpret, what to believe, what is an allegory, etc. anyhow. If you believe that the natural world was created by God for you, then why would you go to great lengths to distort our experience and understanding of the natural world, which the only tool we have for this is the lens of science?

“There can be no incompatibility between Christian faith and proven facts concerning geology, biology, and astronomy. There is no need to teach that stars can fall out of the sky and land on a flat Earth in order to defend our religious faith.”

“They’re blinding you with NOT science” - Lewis Black on Intelligent Design

I just finished reading Science Friction (ISBN 0-8050-7708-1) which has several essays discussing the interplay between Religion and Science. Chapters 8 and 11 dive into a lot of the fray and Chapter 11 provides “ten arguments and ten answers” against ID which point out the absolute ridiculousness of their position(s). Oh, and the “What type of creationist are you?” is a great one if you run into any proclaimed creationists. There are at least 10 different positions on a continuum so the answer is not binary as many creationists would have you believe and probably believe themselves.