Can Intelligent Design Save your Soul?

By Jay Hall Is the Intelligent Design proposal the best alternative in the origins controversy? Intelligent Design (ID) may be defined variously. Is it just doubting Darwin? One main point of the ID movement is that life did not arise by accident. The exact identity of the Intelligent Designer is not specified. Does this approach deal with the origins related data in the best way? Can ID save your soul? Does Intelligent Design imply creationism? Many Christians use the ID argument to show that there is a God and then proceed to show that the Bible is reliable. They say that since the resurrection proves that Jesus is divine and Christ believed the Bible, so the Bible must be the Word of God. If we are going to admit that Scripture is true, then why not hold to the traditional creationist view to begin with? In Norman Geisler and Frank Tureks I Dont Have Enough Faith to be an Athiest we find the approach outlined above and, on balance, their approach is quite useful on many apologetic topics. Unfortunately, they dodge the age of the earth issue, yet point to Old Testament prophecies that Jesus would die at a particular time.1 So they are implicitly admitting that time does matter. God sent Christ at just the right time, God used Moses to rescue His people from Egyptian bondage at the time prophesied and the Lord made the world at the proper time according to the chronology of Scripture (about six thousand years ago). Geisler and Turek mention a couple of creationists but give no space to creationist arguments. In contrast, Denyse OLeary emphasizes ID in her book By Design or By Chance?, yet provides a considerable discussion of creationism. OLeary writes half a page on the RATE project (dealing with radiometric dating)!2 The ID establishment often treats creationists as if they had the plague and belong in a leper colony. Some even claim that creationism has been falsified. The universe cries out for a specific who, not a generic Designer: Lift your eyes and look to the heavens; who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name... (Is. 40:26, NIV). If he cares so much for the stars, just think of his care for you and me, his image-bearers. God is not a deadbeat dad; he has not forgotten his creation. We raise, teach and

communicate with our children, should we expect no less from the Intelligent Designer? God asked Job, Do you know the laws of the heavens? (Job 38:33, NIV). Laws demand a lawgiver, not a mechanical DNA maker. The ultimate cause of personhood must be personal. Unless there is a real Judgment Day, with God deciding the verdict, ethics have no basis. Do ID advocates hold to fixity of kinds (baramins) as Genesis teaches? Geisler and Turek have two tree-like diagrams in their book with the headings Microevolution Within a Type, YES and Macroevolution across Types, NO.3 This seems to show that they hold to fixity of kinds (essential types of life). That is, frogs reproduce frogs and rabbits make rabbits (not lizards). They give five arguments to support this view: genetic limits, cyclical change (like Darwins finches), irreducible complexity, nonviability of transitional forms (half reptile - half bird) and molecular isolation (Michael Dentons studies on protein sequences). These all argue against the fish->amphibian->reptile->mammal transformation claimed by evolutionists. Taking the ID approach of just using science and not relying on Scripture, what can we conclude about the origin of new types of life. The laws of thermodynamics imply one beginning, not multiple creations. So all the basic kinds of life must have existed at the beginning. We observe no new types of life appearing now. Geisler and Turek claim that ID advocates dont necessarily hold to a worldwide flood.4 They fail to see the connection between fixity of kinds and the Flood. Often the order of strata does follow the pattern of simplest life forms in the lower layers and more complex ones near the surface. Trilobites may be found in Cambrian rocks and dinosaurs are in Jurassic layers. Since all kinds existed at the beginning trilobites and dinosaurs were contemporaries. There is no reason why volcanic devastations and major floods would have spared burying dinosaurs for millions of years. Given fixity of kinds, the only reasonable view of the cause of most of the fossil bearing strata is a global flood. That is, the traditional geologic ages are merely stages and environmental zones during the Flood. Thus, we must have a shortened time scale and this favors the Young Earth view. So ID, when it is combined with limited biological variation, implies the creationist stance on catastrophism. Amazingly, Ann Coulter actually gets this point! She comments in her book Godless: ...the fossil record showed vast numbers of new

species suddenly appearing out of nowhere, remaining largely unchanged for millions of years, and then disappearing (almost like there was a big flood or something).5 The last four chapters of Coulters book pushes ID and she seems cool to the idea of a Young Earth.6 If she is open to the evidence for Noahs Flood, she does not appear to grasp its importance in the age-of-the-earth conflict. Have you ever heard of an ID trip to the Grand Canyon? This rock record speaks of death and destruction and Gods judgment on sin during Noahs time. The origin of sin is a topic that the ID movement avoids as well as the evidence for a global deluge. Geisler and Turek admit that Jesus accepted the account of Noahs Flood as historical, yet none of Genesis 6-9 is listed in their Scripture index!7 The near universal occurrence of flood legends among various cultures is a strong pointer to the Deluge. Furthermore, about sixty tons of meteors hit the earth each day - this is not evidenced in the rock record assuming the standard millions of years.8 The mainstream neocatastrophist Derek Ager stated, We cannot escape the conclusion that sedimentation was at times very rapid indeed and that at other times there were long breaks in sedimentation, though it looks both uniform and continuous...9 Maybe the reason that the record seems to be connected (not episodic) is that it was largely produced by a single event - Noahs Flood. Likewise, consider the words of Anna Behrensmeyer, writing in American Scientist, The chances for preservation may be enhanced by severe storms, epidemics or changes in the temperature, availability, or chemistry of water... Because mass mortality or instantaneous death and burial create the optimal initial conditions for fossilization, it is possible that a significant portion of our fossil record is due to such exceptional events10 The Flood provided these ingredients in abundance! If ID implies the Flood, what is the next step? Bruce Gordon provides this insight in the pro-ID work Signs of Intelligence: Natural questions arise as to the identity of the intelligence behind any design of cosmological and biological structures, and our identity and place as human beings in such an order.11 I would ask the following questions: Has the Intelligent Designer communicated to mankind? Which of the major world religions contains the most truth from this Intelligent Designer? Renowned former atheist Anthony Flew has adopted the ID view. Is he ready to worship the Intelligent Designer? Will he place his faith in

Christ? If I had been separated from my father at an early age, I would seek out my father as an adult and would want to renew the relationship (assuming that my father was kind). Knowing that there is an Intelligent Designer should take us to the next step. Who is this Creator and has he left us a clear message? We cannot stop at the halfway house of Intelligent Design. We must press on to find the real truth about the Makers self-revelation. Is it in the Bible or the Quran? One could argue against Eastern worldviews in a number of ways. If I am truly god and one with the cosmos, how is it that I dont remember creating the universe? The view that all is illusion brings slight consolation to the victims of an auto accident with broken necks and who are paralyzed for life. What about Judaism? Many Old Testament prophecies, such as Isaiah 53, point to Christ. Daniel predicted the exact time of the Messiahs arrival. So, Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. Does Islam provide a consistent worldview? In Sura 4:157 of the Quran we read that Jesus only appeared to die; however, a straightforward reading of Sura 3:55 has Allah saying of Christ, I cause you to die.12 This verse uses the same Arabic word for death that Sura 19:15 uses regarding the death of John the Baptist. This appears to be a contradiction. The late philosopher Mortimer Adler, who wrote the popular How to Read a Book, was the chairman of the board of editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and penned Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity of Truth in 1990. Adler points out, If the religions of Far Eastern origins do not claim to be supernatural knowledge, based of divine revelation, then they are theoretical or moral philosophies masquerading as religions.13 Adler concludes that polytheism and non-theism come into conflict with the truths of philosophical theology, and must be rejected.14 Adler became a committed Christian in 1984. Let us follow his example and find the true identity of the Intelligent Designer and worship Him! NOTES 1) I Dont Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek (2004, Crossway Books), p. 27. 2) By Design or By Chance by Denyse OLeary (2004, Augsburg Fortress), p. 140.

3) Geisler and Turek, p. 142. 4) Geisler and Turek, p. 160. 5) Godless by Ann Coulter (2006, Crown Forum), p. 215. 6) Coulter, p. 202. 7) Geisler and Turek, pp. 358, 442. 8) Creative Defense by Nicholas Comninellis (2001, Master Books), p. 112. 9) quoted in Comninellis, p. 97. 10) quoted in Comninellis, p. 126. 11) Is Intelligent Design Science? by Bruce Gordon in Signs of Intelligence ed. by William Dembski and James Kushiner (2001, Brazos Press), p. 215. 12) www.answering-islam.de/Main/Index/J/jesus.html 13) A Philosophers Religious Faith by Mortimer Adler in Philosophers who Believe ed. by Kelly Clark (1993, InterVarsity Press), p. 212. 14) ibid.