November 7, 2005- What Grade Do You Give Intelligent Design?
The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Three F's for Intelligent Design
By: Howard J. Van Till
Our President recently made comments that gave encouragement to those who want something called “Intelligent Design Theory” taught in the public school science classroom. A few decades ago it was Young-Earth Creationism
(YEC) that wanted the same for its beliefs. Knowing that the promotion of religion would not be tolerated in public education, YEC devised a strategy designed to camouflage its religious nature: First, begin with standard YEC dogma about the manner and timetable of supernatural action believed to have initiated and shaped the universe about 6000 years ago; Second, strip that dogma of all explicit references to God or the Bible and substitute science-like appeals to observational data; Third, give this program a marketing name—Creation-Science—calculated to give the impression of being a legitimate scientific approach.
This strategy ended in disaster, of course. It was obvious to all that Creation-Science was little more than a ruse, a primitive ploy for slipping religious dogma into the science classroom disguised as a scientific theory. Not only did it fail the test as credible science, but it also gave religion a black eye for its use of such dubious tactics.
But that sort of subterfuge is history, right? We religious folk have surely learned our lesson and would never again employ strategies so short on candor or integrity, right?
Wrong. It’s back again, this time sporting a new name and a more rigorous-appearing style of argumentation. It’s now called Intelligent Design (ID) and its promotional literature is filled with the mathematics of set theory and probability computations.
But how well does it hold up under scrutiny? Is ID the authentic and evidence-supported scientific theory that it purports to be?
Not by a long shot, in my judgment. Having examined its claims thoroughly, I give it three F’s.
ID’s first failing grade is for its lack of religious candor. Like the advocates of Creation-Science, when ID spokespersons are seeking a place in the public school science classroom they adamantly deny that ID is religious in nature. Carefully crafted versions of the ID hypothesis, stripped of explicit references to God, are offered for public school use.
But it simply cannot be denied that ID literature in general is brimming with evidence of its religious roots. To pretend that ID is not a faith-based movement strikes me as pure silliness. Or worse, duplicity.
ID’s second failing grade is for its rhetorical chicanery. Rhetoric has to do with the way we use words to influence or persuade others. Chicanery is the clever manipulation of language for the purpose of misleading or deceiving someone. Chicanery’s first concern is not with truth, but with achieving some desired effect.
ID’s core claim is that it has scientific evidence that certain biotic structures couldn’t have formed by chance. Therefore, says ID, these structures must have been intelligently designed.
But key words in this claim have been given remarkably unconventional meanings in ID-speak (most skillfully honed by ID’s chief theorist, William Dembski, of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). The phrase “by chance,” for instance, has the quirky meaning, “by the joint effect of all natural causes, both known and unknown.” That’s not exactly the meaning the casual reader would expect.
And what does it mean to say that some biotic structure, X, such as the rotary propeller on E. coli bacteria, “must have been intelligently designed”? In ID lingo it means, in effect, that “the assembling of X for the first time must have required one or more episodes of non-natural, form-imposing intervention by some unidentified, unembodied Being.”
In other words, the core claim of ID is not even about design in the usual sense of purposefully planned. It’s mostly about how things got assembled.
The term “intelligent design” may function as a clever marketing label, but truth in advertising would be far better served by a phrase like “non-natural assembly.” ID’s Intelligent Designer is actually the Surreptitious Assembler.
Finally, ID’s third failing grade is for the vacuous nature of its scientific case. In order to establish its core claim ID theorists must demonstrate that forming X by natural causes (both known and unknown) is so improbable that non-natural assembling action is necessary. This declaration is usually issued as a statement about X: “X is too complex to form naturally.” In actuality, however, it functions as a far more sweeping assertion about the rest of the universe: “The entire universe, operating over billions of years, fails to have the capabilities needed to assemble X.”
But justifying such a colossal claim about the universe is impossible. The best that ID advocates can offer is something like this: in the absence of a complete and detailed scientific account for the first assembling of X by natural means, it is logically permissible to posit the need for one or more episodes of non-natural action by an unknown and unembodied agent.
That is technically correct, of course, but it is nothing more than an appeal to ignorance and has no scientific value whatsoever. By the same logic I could argue that in the absence of a complete and detailed scientific account for lightning, it was logically permissible (and, coincidentally, religiously attractive) for ancient Babylonians to posit that lightning was the direct manifestation of their Storm-God’s anger. It should be obvious, however, that offering an account that is religiously attractive and logically permissible is not the same as offering an explanation that is scientifically warranted—not for practitioners of ancient polytheism, and not for today’s marketers of ID.
ID’s final grade: Three F’s. One for its religious subterfuge; one for its rhetorical chicanery, and one for its scientific failure. Grant a place for that in the public school science classroom? Never!
Howard J. Van Till, Professor of Physics and Astronomy (retired) at Calvin College, has long been active in the science-religion discussion and serves on the Editorial Boards of both Theology and Science and Science and Christian Belief.
Check Out the National Center for Science Education
The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) defends the teaching of evolution in public schools. NCSE is a nationally-recognized clearinghouse for information and advice to keep evolution in the science classroom and "scientific creationism" out. NCSE is the only national organization to specialize in this issue. They provide:
* Reviews of current anti-evolution activity in the United States and around the world
* Background to the fundamentally creationist and anti-evolution movement known as "Intelligent Design"
* Detailed information on the Creation/Evolution controversy from 1859 to the present
* Resources for parents, teachers, school boards, and the general public
Check out NCSE for more information
click here for National Center for Science Education
The New York Times Evolution Debate
The New York Times science section, has special coverage on the evolution debate.
Check out this great resource for articles on:
* the Dover, PA case
* a poll that finds nearly 2/3 of Americans believe creationism should be taught in public schools
* scholars grappling on how to reconcile religion and science
* and much more!
click here for the New York Times
This Week's Inspirational Reading
One merges into another, groups melt into ecological groups until the time when what we know as life meets and enters what we think of as non-life:
barnacle and rock, rock and earth, earth and tree, tree and rain and air….
And it is a strange thing that most of the feeling we call religious, most of the mystical outcrying which is one of the most prized and used and desired reactions of our species, is really the understanding and the attempt to say that man is related to the whole thing, related inextricably to all reality, known and unknowable. This is a simple thing to say, but the profound feeling of it made a Jesus, a St. Augustine, a St.
Francis, a Roger Bacon, a Charles Darwin, and an Einstein. Each of them in his own tempo and with his own voice discovered and reaffirmed with astonishment the knowledge that all things are one things and that one thing is all things—plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on the sea and spinning planets and the expanding universe, all bound by the elastic string of time.
John Steinbeck and Edward F. Ricketts, Sea of Cortez
Honor the 2000 Soldiers Fallen in Iraq at Vigils Wednesday at 6:30pm
Wednesday October 26
6:30 pm
Central Park, Grand Haven, MI
This week, the number of American soldiers lost while serving in Iraq reached over 2000. While thousands of families have made the ultimate sacrifice, thousands more send their children and loved ones off to a war that seems to have no end in sight.
Today, Wednesday, October 26, 2005 at 6:30 p.m. we will gather at vigils to remember and honor our fallen soldiers and ask, "How many more?"
Thousands of us will solemnly gather together and acknowledge the sacrifices made by over 2000 American men and women in Iraq and their families and speak out against the war.
Check out the Move On website to locate a vigil in your area.
click here for more information on the vigils
Does Your Anger Control You?
Thursday October 27th
7:00-9:00 pm
Christ Community Church, Chapel
Suggested Donation $7
C3 welcomes Gen Kelsang Khedrub, the Resident Teacher at Vajrayana Buddhist Center in Chicago. Ordained in 1995, he has a great depth of understanding and skill in presenting the teachings of Buddha in a practical and enjoyable way.
Thursday's session's topic is "A Buddhist Approach to Anger." Anger is one of the most common and destructive of all delusions, and it afflicts our mind almost everyday. It robs us of our ability to think clearly and make rational decisions. Anger even destroys our relationships with those we love most. Gen Khedrub will give practical teachings on how to gradually reduce the tendencies toward anger we have lurking in our heart, and help us to learn how to live a more meaningful, relaxed, and compassionate way of life.
CD Classes Begin Thursday Nov 3.
These classes provide a perfect introduction to meditation to everyone regardless of religious background or previous experience of meditation.
Each class consists of a teaching, meditation, and discussion. They teach essential Buddhist practices ranging from identifying sources of suffering and happiness to learning how to improve our experience of compassion and wisdom.
Thursdays, 7:00-9:00 pm
Nov. 3, Nov. 17, Dec. 1, Dec. 15
Christ Community Church, Chapel
Cost: $7 per class, no one will be turned away for lack of funds
For more information on the Vajrayana Buddhist Center follow the link below.
click here for Vajrayana Buddhist Center
Check Out the Bulletin for Sunday and Our Bulletin Archive!
Check out this Sunday's Bulletin titled: "Jesus' Big Heart- I Am Who I Am."
This Sunday we will celebrate All Saints Day as we honor those in our community who have passed in the last year.
Do not stand at my grave and forever weep.
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn’s rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and forever cry.
I am not there. I did not die.
Melinda Sue Pacho
The C3 Bulletin Archive has turned into a great resource center for other progressive communities around the world. Thanks to the wonderful talent on our staff we are quickly becoming a leader in Progressive Christian liturgies. Check out our Bulletin Archive for more Progressive Christian Liturgies Today!
Click Here for Bulletin
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