The Champions of Intelligent Design

by Michael Gregory Steele and Herman B. Hayes

I thought that the best way to conclude this week dedicated to destroying the sacrilegious field of science would be to showcase the heroes in this epic battle for very soul of America. These people are not sinners in white lab coats, but saintly men of God like you and me (well, at least me for certain). These are not men who waste their days in darkened laboratories squinting into microscopes -- no, a microscope is not necessary to read the Bible.

So who are the champions of intelligent design who dare to ask the question, why does God have no place in science?

As previously mentioned there's Philip E. Johnson, who is considered the father of the intelligent design movement and one of the principle advocates of its teaching in our schools. And at the risk of being redundant I would like to again present this quote from him, because it sums up the aim of ID so well:

[C]ultivating ambiguity by employing secular language in arguments which are carefully crafted to avoid overtones of theistic creationism is a necessary first step for ultimately reintroducing the Christian concept of God as the designer.

Another big player in this movement is William Dembski, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. He's also the author of Intelligent Design, the Bridge Between Science and Theology which contains the following statement:

Christ is indispensable to any scientific theory, even if its practitioners don't have a clue about him. The pragmatics of a scientific theory can, to be sure, be pursued without recourse to Christ. But the conceptual soundness of the theory can in the end only be located in Christ.

Aside from these evangelical Christians who are attempting to reshape science in the image of Jesus Christ, there are also the usual champions of any conservative Christian cause. Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family has a section of their site devoted to ID with the following introduction:

Are we humans the result of meaningless processes that did not have us in mind? Or were we created on purpose—by design? The answer to these questions is key to many public issues debated in our society, including abortion, marriage, sexuality, bioethics, human rights and so on. Yet in most public schools, only one view may be taught: naturalistic evolution...

You see, there is little difference in the views of those who advocate the teaching of intelligent design. Overwhelmingly these supporters are evangelical Protestants -- men of God. These men all want the same ultimate goal: science that centers around Jesus Christ, not Charles Darwin or Isaac Newton.

This debate though is ultimately about trust. Just who do you trust to decide what ideas are to be deemed scientific, a bunch of atheist Nobel laureates, or people who actually know God?

Let me conclude this week by issuing this ultimatum to everyone reading this: either reject traditional science and accept intelligent design or get used to the idea of burning atop Satan's Bunsen burner of unspeakable torment for all eternity.