When we ask "Should we accept
the consensus?"
in each area, and compare the answers given by three views, it may
seem (superficially but not on closer examination) that only two of the views
are internally consistent:
• young-earth
creation says "never accept the consensus, in either
area."
• evolutionary
creation says "always accept
the consensus, in both areas."
• progressive creation says "sometimes accept
the consensus, in one area."
This page explains why — even
though progressive creation accepts the consensus in one area (for
questions about age)
but
rejects it in the other area (for questions about design) — there is
no logical inconsistency. Why? Because
in a comparison of the two areas, age and design, we find major differences
in: 1) scientific evidence supporting the consensus theory, 2) views
about the reliability of historical science, 3) relationship
between consensus and challenger theories, and 4) potential bias due
to cultural-personal influences inside and outside the scientific community.
After descriptions of Competing Theories (two for Age, two for Design), we'll
look
at
these four differences — 1.
scientific evidence 2. views about science 3.
theory characteristics 4. scientist bias — plus
a summary about humility.
note: Only half of what's
below is in the main body
(theories, 1 2 3 4, humility), the rest is an appendix.
Two
Theories about Age
Theories of conventional
geology propose that the earth is more than four billions years old,
and its geology and fossil record were produced over a long period of time
by a combination of slow (uniformitarian) and fast (catastrophic) natural processes.
A theory of young-earth flood
geology proposes that the earth is less than ten thousand years old,
and almost all of its geology and fossil record were produced in a short period
by catastrophic natural processes
during a global flood.
Two Theories about Design
A feature (an object, organism,
biochemical system,...) could have been produced, during the history of nature,
by nondesign (with
production by undirected natural process) or design (with
production by design-directed action that converts
an agent's unobservable design-idea into a feature we can observe). With
proper definitions, design and non-design are mutually exclusive (it was
one or the other) so the non-design
is supported if the production of a feature by undirected natural
process does seem plausible; and if this does not seem plausible,
design is supported. { Four
Types of Design Could
we scientifically detect design in nature? }
two creationist theories about design: old-earth
evolutionary creationists think God designed the universe so it would totally self-assemble
by natural process; old-earth progressive creationists think
God designed the universe to partially self-assemble, and then during
formative history God occasionally supplemented His usual method of creation (using "natural appearing" process) with "miraculous
appearing" design-directed
action.
1. Scientific Evidence
The most important
difference between consensus theories about age and design is the scientific
evidence.
For age-questions, there is overwhelming
scientific evidence for an old universe.
But for design-questions, there
are scientific reasons to question whether undirected natural process was
sufficient to produce the first life and all complex life.
Overwhelming
Evidence (about age)
Evidence from a wide range
of fields — including the study of coral reefs, ice cores, sedimentary
rocks, the fossil record in geological context, seafloor spreading and
continental drift, magnetic reversals, genetic molecular clocks, radioactive
dating, the development of stars, starlight from faraway galaxies, and
more — indicates that the earth and universe are billions of years
old. Because "a long time" is an essential component of many theories
that in other ways (such as the domains they explain and the proposals
they include) are relatively independent, it is less likely that suspicions
of circular reasoning are justified. {more about age-science}
Scientific Questions (about design)
• For naturalistic theories proposing
a natural chemical evolution of the first carbon-based
living organism, the current scientific consensus is that these theories seem
implausible. {details: Theories
about the Origin of Life} Unless scientists demand that a naturalistic
theory MUST be the conclusion, due to methodological naturalism,
there is little reason for scientific confidence in naturalistic chemical evolution.
• Many aspects of neo-Darwinian
theory are strongly supported, but a page about Logical
Evaluations of Evolutions explains why — when the scientific
principle of logical comparison is ignored — theories
of biological evolution appear to be scientifically stronger than they
actually are. Here is a brief summary:
Often, support is illogically
shifted from a strongly supported aspect of evolution (such as basic fossil-E progressions, micro-E changes
in drug-resistant bacteria and finch beaks, or minor
macro-E with small changes in otherwise similar species) to a
less strongly supported claim (like Total Macro-E with
a 100% natural evolution of all biocomplexity).
Also,
the important scientific differences between two theories of old-earth
progressive creation (by independent creation or
by genetic
modification) — with full common descent being rejected by
the former, but accepted by the latter (which I think
is the
most
likely method
of creation) — are
usually ignored. Most
evidence typically proposed in support of evolution is irrelevant when
comparing 100-% Natural Total
Macro-E with progressive creation by genetic modification.
Strong support for
Total Macro-E requires strong answers for tough questions, by asking "How
many mutations and how much selection would be required, how long would
this take, and how probable is it?" and "Could
a step-by-step process of evolution produce systems that (because all parts
seem necessary for performing the system's function) seem irreducibly complex?" since
there would be no function to "select for" until all parts are present.
Therefore, based on scientific evidence-and-logic I accept one consensus conclusion
(about age) but question the other (about design).
2. Views about Historical Science
What happens when
we ask, "Can historical science produce reliable conclusions?", for
questions
about age and design?
When we ask questions about age,
most proponents of young-earth
theories are super-skeptical about the ability of historical
science (as in geology or astronomy) to reach reliable scientific
conclusions about history. They ask, "Were you there?", and declare
that "no" means "therefore
you can't know much about ancient history." By contrast, the
two old-earth theories are confident about historical science. {more
about historical science}
Similarly, when we ask questions
about
design, many proponents of evolutionary theories are
super-skeptical (*) about the ability of historical
science to determine anything about historical
design-directed action by an agent, at least if the agent and action might
have been supernatural. {* I say "many" instead of "all" because
some proponents of
theistic evolution think design-action is scientifically detectable in principle,
but in reality has not been detected. }
By contrast, old-earth proponents
of design theories are
confident that scientists have developed, and will
continue improving, scientific methods (based on a logical evaluation
of observable
evidence) to cope with the challenges of distinguishing
between design and nondesign. As with all science, for design questions
we cannot obtain proof, but we can develop a rationally justified confidence
about "a good
way to bet." {what about future science?}
Old-earth design theorists think
historical science can do more (for age questions) than is claimed
by skeptical young-earthers, and can do more (for design questions)
than is claimed by skeptical evolutionists. Thus,
old-earth progressive creation is logically consistent in accepting
the reliability of historical science in both areas. {both
types of super-skepticism are good ideas taken
to an extreme}
3. Characteristics of Theories
A. When defending a self-acknowledged
weakness in their own theory, young-earth creationists and evolutionary creationists
both appeal
to future science by
claiming "there is a plausible answer and, although we haven't found
this answer yet, we will in the future."
B. Two Trump Cards: Another
young-earth defense is to play the trump card of scriptural authority by
claiming that, regardless of the evidence and logic, a Bible-believing Christian
MUST
conclude
that "it happened as described
in [our interpretation of] the Bible." Similarly, an evolutionary creationist
can play the trump card of methodological naturalism by
claiming that, regardless of the evidence and logic, a scientist
MUST conclude that "it
happened by natural process."
In contrast with appeals to future
science (A) or a nonscientific trumping of current science (B), progressive
creationists favor critical thinking about realistic expectations for future
science (A) and giving a high priority to scientific evidence-and-logic
(B).
C. Young-earth creationists
sometimes appeal to miracles when they acknowledge a weakness in their own
theory (*),
but old-earth progressive creationists appeal to miracles when they claim a
weakness in the
opposing theory of all-natural evolution. In contrast with young-earth
creationist who say "our theory
is inadequate so we'll propose miracles," progressive
creationists say "your theory (about a totally natural evolution)
is inadequate so we'll propose miracles." {* For
example, miracles seem necessary in flood geology to explain the dissipation
of heat
during a global flood, with enormous amounts of
heat produced by runaway
subduction and accelerated
radioactive decay and in other
ways. And an initial
creation with miraculous apparent
age is often used to explain away difficulties in young-universe
astronomy theories. }
But despite
the important difference in young-earth and old-earth theories
(re: whose "theory
weakness" inspires
a claim for miracles), both agree
that God does miracles whenever he decides that natural process is not sufficient
to achieve what he wants to happen in history. / And young-earth
creationists claim both types of miracles: they defend weakness in their
own theories
of flood geology, and they attack weakness in non-creationist theories of
chemical evolution and biological evolution.
D. Can historical
science produce reliable conclusions? { Section 2 }
Most young-earth creationists
are skeptical for age-questions,
many evolutionary creationists
are skeptical for design-questions;
but progressive creationists
are confident for BOTH questions.
None of these four characteristics
is a strong argument for old-earth progressive creation. They are just
factors to consider when theories are being evaluated, as explained below.
4. Biases of Scientists
Sections 1-3 examine science (and
logic),
now we'll look at scientists (and bias). This
section, which is now in the appendix, ended
with a
conclusion:
Let's compare the scientific
evidence-and-logic in two areas, as summarized in Section 2. When
we look at age-consensus (claiming the earth and universe are old) I
think the conclusion is scientifically strong and "confidence about
correctness" is
warranted,
despite the possibility for bias during evaluation. But when we look
at design-consensus (claiming that theories of chemical evolution are even
moderately plausible, or that all aspects of 100%-natural biological evolution
are "facts" beyond doubt) I think the conclusions are biased
and are overconfident — i.e., current estimates
of plausibility-status don't seem to match the estimates that would be produced
by purely objective,
scientifically
logical evaluation — because I think there are valid scientific reasons
for questions.
Appropriate Humility
This page has explained — by
looking at historical science, scientific evidence, theory characteristics,
and scientist bias — why I think my theory
proposing old-earth progressive
creation is
logically consistent in accepting one consensus conclusion (about age)
while questioning another (about design). But
this view is held
with humility because, as explained in my FAQ
about
Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design, I
think that...
In science
and theology, our humility should be appropriate, not too little and not
too much. We can make some claims, but not others, with confidence. ... In
my opinion:
When we ask questions about age,
scientific evidence for an old earth (and universe) is extremely strong , and
theological arguments about age — claiming biblical support for either
an old earth or young earth — are weak. Therefore, an old-earth
conclusion seems justified.
But when we ask, "Can natural
process lead to a total assembly of the universe?", scientific and theological
arguments — claiming support either for 100% natural evolution or
against it — are not decisive. ...
You and I should say in public — and
believe in our hearts and minds — that "IF God created using another
method (differing from the way I think He created, regarding either age or
evolution), then God is worthy of our praise." But this humility
(if... then...) is compatible with humbly explaining, using arguments from
theology and science, why we think a particular view is most likely to be true.