[asa] Detecting Design

I'm often struck by the contrast between the perceived threat to
Christian faith posed by evolution on the one hand, and the perceived
compatibility of Christian faith and other scientific theories on the
other hand.

For one example, everyday phrases such as "unplanned pregnancy" rarely
solicit objections from people of faith. It's generally understood that
"unplanned" means unplanned by humans. Whether God planned the
pregnancy or not is a separate issue.

Even unsolved biological mysteries are rarely attributed to unidentified
and possibly supernatural intelligent agency - unless the mysteries have
to do with origins of species rather than individuals. For example, if
an unexpected and unlikely phenomenon occurs (for example, a family
having ten children all of the same sex), God's involvement in such
events is generally assumed to be no more or less than in a family
having five boys and five girls. Perhaps a natural biological cause
will be found, perhaps there was a human-designed cause (e.g., the
parents secretly used X/Y sperm sorting and artificial insemination), or
perhaps it was just a random event (after all, one in 1024 is not all
that improbable compared to most lottery odds!).

But here is my point: if by faith we can believe with the psalmist that
God knew each of us intimately before we were born, without expecting
science to detect "irreducible" or "specified" complexity or an "edge"
in embryonic development where natural causes fail and intelligent
agency must take over, why not approach the origins of species
similarly?

I'm reminded of a Sunday School song, "Oh, Who Can Make a Flower? I'm
Sure I Can't, Can You?". Other verses include "Oh, Who Can Make A
Butterfly? " and "Oh, Who Can Make the Wind Blow?". Surely the
theological truth in the song is not dependent upon the failure of
botanists, lepidopterists, and meteorologists to explain things, nor
even upon our inability to engineer life or alter wind patterns.

Michael Behe assures us in his latest book that the malaria parasite was
intelligently designed, whereas its evolution of chloroquine resistance
was not, all based on some mathematical calculations (which I think are
very questionable, by the way). I'm sorry, but I find it much more
compatible with Christian faith to accept that sexual reproduction,
flowers, butterflies, and malaria parasites all evolved and continue to
evolve much as neo-Darwinian theory suggests.

My thoughts and prayers are with those of you attending the Annual
Meeting in Edinburgh.

Yours in Christ,

Charles (Chuck) F. Austerberry, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Hixson-Lied Room 438
Creighton University
2500 California Plaza
Omaha, NE 68178
 
Phone: 402-280-2154
Fax: 402-280-5595
 
e-mail: cfauster@creighton.edu
 
Nebraska Religious Coalition for Science Education
http://nrcse.creighton.edu
 
 

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Received on Fri Jul 20 13:16:31 2007