Here is an article on the Kansas controversy which promotes the intelligent
design movement, as an alternative to the usual Darwinist stereotype of
creationists as "Bible-thumping, flat-Earth know-nothings".
The existence of a "newly emerging upper tier of the creationist
movement" (Ratzsch D.L., "The Battle of Beginnings", 1996, pp84-85), is
starting to seep into the public consciousness!
This will probably be the lasting side-effect of the Kansas issue, whatever
the eventual outcome of that particular controversy.
Steve
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TULSA WORLD, August 29, 1999, READERS' FORUM
HEADLINE: Intelligent design vs. evolution
BYLINE: STAN MEEK
Stan Meek, of Pryor, is a retired Church of the Nazarene pastor and a
freelance writer.
Good for Kansas. It might actually be on the cutting edge of science in the
new millennium.
Despite the fears of insecure evolutionists and some political and
educational leaders, the action of the Kansas Board of Education throws
open a "window of light" upon an otherwise closed system of thought.
Science has nothing to fear from an open inquiry into truth. Unfortunately
for science, and for all of us, an unholy marriage between science and
naturalistic philosophy took place early on. That marriage has influenced all
of life.
As Berkeley law professor Phillip Johnson states: "The authority of science
was captured by an ideology, and evolutionary scientists thereafter believed
what they wanted to believe rather than what the fossil data, the genetic
data, the embryological data and the molecular data were showing them."
But a new breed of scholars is emerging reputable, fully credentialed and
highly honored scientists and academicians who are daring to attack the
present "king on the mountain." They are forging a movement identified as
"intelligent design."
The intelligent design movement is not promoting "creationism" as it is
ordinarily characterized, but simply argues that "Darwinism is on its own
terms a failed scientific research program." Or as Johnson says, "In small
matters you cannot afford as a scientist to indulge in the original sin (not
following the data), because your colleagues will show you up and make a
fool out of you."
Design theorists are scientists who believe that they now have empirical
scientific evidence that points to an intelligent design and Designer. Such
data as is presented by biochemist Michael Behe's "irreducible complexity,"
mathematician Marcel Schutzenberger's "functional complexity," and
William Dembski's "complex specified information."
Darwinists are masters at keeping their critics stereotyped as Bible-
thumping, flat-Earth know-nothings as caricatured by Hollywood's "Inherit
the Wind." But it is sheer arrogance and wholly unscientific for Darwinism
to resist all serious questions about "undirected natural processes." Would
Darwinists be so defensive and autocratically closed if their foundations
were more secure?
Johnson, who has been debating evolutionists across the country and giving
them nightmares, calls for a little humility in our scientists, saying "what we
need now are people who want to promote genuine inquiry, not people
who have all the answers in advance."
Of course time will tell, but Johnson believes that by 2059 (the bicentennial
year of Darwin's "Origin of the Species"), and possibly as early as 2019, we
will be celebrating the demise of Darwinism, and evolutionists will be
wondering what went wrong?
Do we want our children to continue to be exposed to a closed system of
scientific philosophy, or to be encouraged in a genuine spirit of open
inquiry? That is precisely what is at stake, not only in Kansas but in every
state. The "establishment" will come along kicking and screaming, but
ultimately they will feel better about themselves, and we will have a culture
with meaning and sanity again.
Those who wish to know more about the "design" movement should obtain
the book, "Mere Creation Science, Faith and Intelligent Design," a
collection of 21 articles by scientists and scholars, edited by William A.
Dembski. The movement is also publishing "Origins and Design," a
scholarly journal published quarterly.
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"Present-day ultra-Darwinism, which is so sure of itself, impresses
incompletely informed biologists, misleads them, and inspires fallacious
interpretations." (Grasse P.-P., "Evolution of Living Organisms: Evidence
for a New Theory of Transformation", Academic Press: New York NY,
1977, p6)
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
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