Here is a recent Colson's Breakpoint article which states well why
Darwinism and Christianity are ultimately incompatible.
As Colson says:
"What this means is that Darwinism is not merely a biological theory.
Instead, it smuggles in a philosophy of naturalism that is implacably
opposed to any idea of purpose or design."
That is why IMHO many theistic evolutionists are so opposed to ID, and
indeed cannot understand it. Their minds have become captive to the
"philosophy of naturalism", which the Apostle Paul warned was a real
possibility for Christians:
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive
philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of
this world rather than on Christ." (Col 2:8).
It is ironic that non-theists like Bertvan can recognise intelligent
design, but *Christians* who are evolutionists, can't!
What is the answer? As Richard Lewontin said (but with the complete
opposite intention):
"...to put a correct view of the universe into people's heads we must
first get an incorrect view out." (Lewontin R., "Billions and Billions
of Demons", review of "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in
the Dark" by Carl Sagan, New York Review, January 9, 1997, p28.
http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWarchdisplay.cgi?19970109028R@p2).
Those `Christian Darwinists' (as Pat Pun puts it) need to first admit
at least the *possibility* that they have been become "captive through
[a] hollow and deceptive philosophy", namely scientific naturalism.
Steve
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Subject: [breakpoint] God Versus Darwin, 08/19/1999
[...]
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BreakPoint Commentary #90819 - 08/19/1999
God Versus Darwin: What Darwinism Really Means
by Charles Colson
Why can't those creationists just be reasonable?
The speaker was Eugenie Scott of the National Center
for Science Education, in a debate with Phillip
Johnson, author of a book debunking Darwin. I have
friends who believe God created life, Scott went on,
"people of deep faith," yet they accept Darwinism as
the mechanism God used. Why are creationists still
holding out?
That's a fair question. Many Christians do accept
both the Bible and Darwinism. What's wrong with that?
To answer that question, we need to look closely at
what Darwin really said. Even in Darwin's own day,
many Christians tried to combine his theory with the
idea of divine purpose and design. For example, the
botanist Asa Gray tried to find a divine plan in
natural selection.
But Darwin protested that this was not what he meant
at all. If God was behind evolution, he argued, then
each variation in living things would be
predetermined by His purpose. But in that case, there
would be no need for natural selection.
Darwin's motives were ultimately religious.
After all, the whole point of natural selection is to
demonstrate how limbs and organs that appear to be
designed might actually result from random changes.
The theory is that natural selection sifts through
those random changes and preserves those that happen
to be beneficial.
But if the changes were not random--if God
preselected only beneficial changes in the first
place--then obviously you would not need any sifting.
In Darwin's own words, if God ensured that "the right
variations occurred, and no others, natural selection
would be superfluous"--unnecessary, redundant.
Christians need to understand that the two central
elements of Darwin's theory--random random changes
and the blind sifting of natural selection--were both
proposed expressly to get rid of design and purpose
in biology. In the words of historian Jacques Barzun,
"The sum total of accidents of life acting upon the
sum total of the accidents of variation
provided a completely mechanistic and material
system" to account for adaptations in living things.
What this means is that Darwinism is not merely a
biological theory. Instead, it smuggles in a
philosophy of naturalism that is implacably opposed
to any idea of purpose or design.
In The Soul of Science, Nancy Pearcey and Charles
Thaxton show that science is always driven by
philosophical and religious motivations. Throughout
history many biologists, from Ray to Linnaeus to
Cuvier, were Christians. They studied the finely
engineered structures in living things--eyes and
ears, fins and feathers--in order to reveal the
wisdom of the Creator.
But Darwin's motivations were equally religious: He
wanted to get rid of the Creator. He took direct aim
at the idea of design and purpose, hoping to replace
it with a completely naturalistic mechanism.
When Darwinists urge Christians to "just be
reasonable," they're papering over the radically
opposed religious motivations behind scientific
theories. You and I ought to tear the paper off; we
ought to demand that Darwinists be honest about the
naturalistic philosophy implicit in their theory. You
can use this special "BreakPoint" series in your
Bible studies and discussion groups to be better
informed.
The evolution controversy reveals just how much
science is driven by deep religious commitments.
Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship Ministries
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"Reduced to the initial and still crude form in which it is now emerging in
the modern world, the new religious spirit appears, as we have said (cf. I),
as the impassioned vision and anticipation of some super-mankind ... To
believe and to serve was not enough: we now find that it is becoming not
only possible but imperative literally to love evolution." (Teilhard de
Chardin P., "Christianity and Evolution", 1971, pp183-184, in Bird W.R.,
"The Origin of Species Revisited", Regency: Nashville TN, Vol. II, 1991,
p264)
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