Science & Religion Guide

When people sit down to discuss intelligent design everyone seems to have a different definition for it. Is it political? Religious? Scientific? Is it about God or isn’t it? Depending on where you sit at the table, it’s about SCIENCE all of these things. & Intelligent design as a theoretical concept provides a lens for seeing patterns and meaning in the world in which we live. Intelligent design as a scientific con- struct attempts to use science to show these patterns to be the work of a supernatural and intelligent designer — for all intents and purposes, God. RELIGION However, scientists, philosophers and theorists who use the phrase “intelligent design” don’t use the “G”word — at least, not when they’re describing science. Intelligent design proponents’ staunch position on intelligent design-as-science is often in direct conflict with mainstream scientists’ insistence that ID is religion masquerading as science. Taking intelligent design out of the acrimonious debate, Science & Theology News takes a look at ID’s con- cepts and presents counterpoints from scientists and theologians alike — without mudslinging or repetitive rhetoric. GUIDE An exclusive, ongoing series The characters in this story know each other well. And even though privately (and sometimes publicly) to equip you with the tools these players might call each other scientifically igno- to better understand the rant biblical literalists or atheistic materialistic secular- minded elitists — everyone in the game knows that important issues at the crux there’s something to hear if the shouting would stop. of science-and-religion. In this turf war, Science & Theology News provides a THIS ISSUE: INTELLIGENT DESIGN piece of Switzerland to let everyone come to the table, even if they’ll still return to different countries and cultures after dinner. k 26 | SCIENCE & THEOLOGY NEWS | NOVEMBER 2005 public schools naturally expect that this would give credence to the literal story of Adam and Eve being directly created WHO’S WHO: out of the dust — please, no story of intervening generations of single cells to Intelligent Design amphibians, reptiles and mammals. In a panel discussion at a meeting Proponents of the American Scientific Affiliation, Michael Behe, one of the architects of Michael Behe ID, declared that Intelligent Design is Position: professor of essentially theistic evolution. For many biochemistry at Lehigh foes of evolution — and quite possibly University in West for many advocates of evolution as well Bethlehem, Pa. — theistic evolution seems like a con- tradiction of terms. Richard Dawkins, a Contributions: He is triumphalist atheist, lauds materialistic author of Darwin’s Black evolution as making atheism intellectu- Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. ally respectable. He is a senior fellow at the Discovery On the other hand, many eminent Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. scientists, ranging from Theodosius Dobzhansky, one of the founders of William Dembski the modern synthesis of evolution, to Position: professor of Francis Collins, the director of the Hu- theology and science man Genome Project, have accepted at The Southern Baptist evolution as the operational means by Theological Seminary in which the Creator brought the panoply Louisville, Ky. of living forms into existence. Essential to the theory of evolution is Contributions: He is the hypothesis of common descent, the author and/or editor of numerous books supporting the theory of intelligent design, powerful idea that every creature had a including No Free Lunch: Why Specified parent. As a hypothesis, it is as reason- Complexity Cannot Be Purchased Without ARTVILLE able as the notion that the Earth goes Intelligence and Signs of Intelligence: around the sun. But children are not Understanding Intelligent Design. He is a clones of the parents, and perhaps not senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s always even the same species, for there is Center for Science and Culture. Guest Editor: Owen Gingerich the matter of mutations. Most mutations are disasters, but perhaps some inspired few are not. Can mutations be inspired? Stephen Meyer Here is the ideological watershed, the Position: senior fellow and program director of division between atheistic evolution and Disrupting the design debate: the Discovery Institute’s theistic evolution, and frankly it lies be- Center for Science and yond science to prove the matter one way Culture. or the other. Science will not collapse if Taking the ID debate out some practitioners are convinced that Contributions: occasionally there has been creative input Authored a paper on intelligent design in the long chain of being. published in the Proceedings of the The leading theorists of ID argue that Biological Society of Washington in August of pundits’ playbooks the mechanisms of random mutations and 2004. natural selection are inadequate to account for the intricate and astonishing variety of BY OWEN GINGERICH Jay W. Richards life the world offers. Some would argue Position: senior that the evidence for intelligent input is fellow at the Discovery Along with the vast majority of members overwhelming. In terms of final causes, Institute’s Center for they make a good case for a coherent un- Science and Culture. derstanding of the nature of cosmos. But of the Abrahamic faith traditions, I believe they fall short in providing any mecha- Contributions: He nisms for the efficient causes that primar- is co-author of The in a created cosmos. ily engage scientists in our age. ID does Privileged Planet with astronomer Guillermo not explain the temporal or geographical Gonzalez at Iowa State University. This book asserts that Earth is uniquely positioned in Thus, I believe in an intelligent Creator sculpted by a worldwide Noachian flood. distribution of species, or the intricate the universe for scientific discovery. and Designer of the universe. I have said Even a passionate anti-evolutionist, Phil- relationships of the DNA coding. that I therefore believe in intelligent lip Johnson, objected when I referred to ID is interesting as a philosophical design, lowercase “i” and “d.” But I have him as a creationist. Intelligent Design is idea, but it does not replace the scientific Jonathan Wells trouble with Intelligent Design — up- not young-earth creationism, and it is not explanations that evolution offers. But Position: senior percase “I” and “D” — a movement widely necessarily opposed to many of the ideas evolution presented as a materialistic fellow at the Discovery seen as anti-evolutionist. of evolution. philosophy is ideology, and that is some- Institute’s Center for I have come to appreciate that there I am sure that many friends of Intel- thing that can be legitimately resisted. Science and Culture. is immense incomprehension from both ligent Design would be dismayed and Unfortunately, the battle as it is being Contributions: He is the friends and foes of Intelligent Design. alarmed to hear this. They presume that fought is a battle of misunderstandings the author of Icons of Evolution: Science or There seems to be a knee-jerk reaction ID is a bulwark against evolution, which on both sides of the terrain. k Myth? Why much of what we teach about among the critics that ID is simply they assume is atheistic to the core. They evolution is wrong. creationism in disguise. It is unfortunate do not want to hear that Homo sapiens Owen Gingerich is professor emeritus that our language is so easily hijacked could have been on the family tree with of astronomy and history of science at ‘WHO’S WHO: INTELLIGENT that a perfectly reasonable word — cre- an ape-like ancestor, despite the fossil Harvard University and a senior astronomer DESIGN OPPONENTS’ ationism — now almost universally refers record and the DNA lineages. Many of emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical CONTINUES ON PAGE 41 to belief in a 6,000-year-old young-earth the supporters of the teaching of ID in Observatory, Cambridge, Mass. NOVEMBER 2005 | SCIENCE & THEOLOGY NEWS | 27 Universal surprises In 1995, a solar eclipse he saw in India Basically there are two camps: One camp Intelligent Design made him think about Earth’s unique place in says that it’s just an observer selection effect. the universe — a place designed to be able to And we’ve just selected this universe out of helps open one study such phenomenon. Though there was a vast ensemble of habitable universes. The no “Eureka!” moment, Gonzalez felt strongly other camp says that intelligent design is the that chance couldn’t explain Earth’s privileged best explanation, since we have no evidence astronomer’s mind position. And last year, Gonzalez and Jay for any such vast ensemble of universes. W. Richards, another fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, How do use intelligent design in your published The Privileged Planet. research? Since he was Currently, Gonzalez has been busy fighting My argument that I wrote up with Jay intellectual battles on campus (See sidebar.) Richards we presented in our book, The six, Guillermo and continuing his own research on the Privileged Planet; it’s a completely original Galactic Habitable Zone — the part of the argument. We present the discovery that I Gonzalez has galaxy that seems to have the right conditions made around the late ’90s, where I noticed looked up at to support life: conditions that all together, he that those places in the universe that are most says, are very rare. habitable for life also offer the best oppor- the night sky, Taking time out of his astrobiology studies tunities for scientific discovery. That seems searching for more than what and stepping out of the debate for a moment, completely unexplainable in terms of the Gonzalez talks about why he is an intelligent usual naturalistic causes. So, intelligent design the universe could show him design astronomer and how that lets him travel is the only alternative.

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