A bunch of conservative creationists lost control of the Kansas State Board of Education today in favor of members favoring the teaching of evolution in classrooms. The creationists advocating the theory of “intelligent design” had sought to weaken or eliminate references to evolution in class, with one candidate calling the theory of evolution “an age-old fairy tale” and a “nice bedtime story.” Today’s vote thankfully puts science back in the hands of scientists and out of the hands of theologians.
This “intelligent design” argument is really just a rehash of teleological arguments going back to Thomas Aquinas (who in turn borrowed from Aristotle). The argument is essentially this: that the universe is so vast in its complexity of life and matter that there must have been some Architect or designer behind it all, for only in that way could something so complex and ordered come about.
The argument is specious. It essentially perceives a pattern in the universe’s complexity, and thereby concludes there is a message in that complexity: that God exists.
If you take a bunch of sticks and throw them up in the air, and they come down in such a pattern as to mysteriously form the word “H-E-L-L-O,” it doesn’t mean that aliens from outer space are the “architect” behind the message. As spooky and astonishing as the arrangement of sticks might be, the arrangement was really just a random coincidence. You can discern nothing about any “architect” based on patterns perceived in the physical world. God may or may not exist, but this argument from design is not going to get anyone anywhere.
In the meantime, let’s teach our kids something upon which almost all scientists agree: that life came about as a result of evolution. Whether evolution occurred randomly or as a result of a Creator is really beside the point.
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It is exactly beside the point. I believe in God and evolution. Nowhere in the Bible does it say exactly how He created life. It is an excersise in faith to believe He did. It seems to me that creationists are over-compensating for their own lack of faith by trying to convince everyone else of it.
Agreed.
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