Douglas Groothuis
Defending Christian Faith, December 7, 2004
CHRISTIANITY, INTELLIGENT DESIGN,
AND SCIENCE
I.
Christianity and Scientific Claims: Warfare or Reconciliation?
A.
Rival sources of authority
B.
Naturalism and macro-evolution. Evolution
as the only game in town. See
Phillip Johnson,
C.
Rhetorical situation between Darwinism and its rivals. See Thomas Woodward,
Doubts About
D.
Models of relationship between science and Christianity
E.
The emergence of the intelligent design movement (or ID). See The Discovery Institute: http://www.discovery.org/csc/
II. Theories
of the Nature of Science
A.
Philosophy of science and science proper
B.
Debates on the nature of science (epistemology)
1.
Realism: science
can know (or approximate) objective truth about the part of the
universe it addresses
2.
Nonrealism: science
may be “successful” without discovering truth
C.
The limits of science (illogic of scientism)
D.
Pascal on the human limits of science (Groothuis, On
Pascal, chapter 3)
E.
The philosophical presuppositions of science
III. Models
of Integrating Science and Theology
A.
Different in essence
B.
Different in approach
C.
Theology as foundational for science. See
work of Stanley Jaki
D.
Science delimits religion
E.
An interactive model: only
apologetically fruitful method
IV. Objections
to Creation as a Scientific Explanation
A.
What should we defend about creation? See
Francis Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time (InterVarsity)
and Lewis and Demarest, Integrative Theology
1.
Ex nihilo creation (Genesis 1:1; John 1:1)
2.
God’s intervention to create the first life (Gen. 1)
3.
God’s intervention to create species (Gen. 1)
4.
God’s intervention to create first humans (Gen. 1)
5.
Age of the universe and earth question. See
Francis Schaeffer, No Final Conflict (IVP)
a.
“Day” sometimes used for “age” in
Scripture
b.
“Days” mentioned before the sun and earth, so not
literal
c.
Biblical genealogies not meant to be exhaustive chronologies
d.
General revelation seems to reveal a very old earth and
universe. See Hugh Ross, Creation and Time (NavPress, 1994)
·
Big Bang
cosmology: 14-15 billion year old creation
B.
Why not theistic evolution?
1.
Exegetical/hermeneutical issues: the
Bible doesn’t allow it (literal first couple, literal fall)
2.
Scientific issues: problems
with evolutionary theory
3.
Philosophical issues
a.
Evolution makes Christian much theism less likely and God less
involved in the universe (more like Deism)
b.
Evolution invented to exclude God from explanation; it is
still used as an alternative to theism (R. Dawkins especially)
C.
Biblical creationism (ICR) and intelligent design
distinguished. See also William Dembski,
Intelligent Design (IVP, 1999) (appendix)
D.
Creationism: literal
six-day creation; global flood; negative program; theologically
maximal
·
Institute for
Creation Research web page: http://www.icr.org/
E.
Intelligent design: not
necessarily six-day creation; leaves flood out of it; theological
minimal
·
Attempt to
introduce intelligence into science as an irreducible explanatory
element; “wedge” strategy. See Phillip Johnson, The
Wedge of Truth (IVP, 2000)
F.
Objections to concept of intelligent design in science
1.
God is a religious concept alien to science
2.
Idea of creation assumes the supernatural, which is
unscientific
3.
Idea of creation derived from the Bible, therefore, not
scientific
4.
Idea of creation makes no scientific predictions
5.
Idea of creation too narrow-minded to be science
6.
No positive evidence for creation; only criticisms of
macro-evolution
7.
Idea is nothing but “God of the gaps” based on
ignorance
V. Problems
with Macro-Evolutionary Model
A.
What is the theory of Darwinian evolution? Descent with
genetic modification through natural selection accounts for all of
life on earth
·
Some (such as
Stephen Jay Gould) add other factors beyond what
B.
“Icons of evolution” and the evidence(see Jonathon
Wells, Icons of Evolution)
C.
Problems with naturalism outside of evolutionary theory: remember natural theology and
negative apologetics against naturalism (naturalism leads to
nihilism, etc.)
D.
The prebiotic soup and the origin of information. See the
prolific work of Stephen Myer especially. See his referee journal
article:
E.
Problems with the fossil record (but this is not the only
issue)
F.
Extrapolations from micro-evolution to macro-evolution: finch beaks and peppered
moths (see J. Wells, Icons)
G.
Other sources of knowledge may contradiction scientific
theories
VI. Intelligent
Design as a Scientific Research Program
A.
Finding empirical evidence for design through a “design
filter”
B.
Ruling out necessity (natural law) and chance as sufficient
explanations
C.
“Specified complexity” (information) as the sign of
intelligent design. See Dembski article in
First Things
D.
Finding contingency, complexity, specification in
“nature” (creation)
·
Irreducible
complexity as evidence of design (M. Behe, Darwin’s Black
Box): springing the
mousetrap
VII. Intelligent
Design and Christian Apologetics
A.
“The wedge” against naturalism (leading competitor
to Christian theism)
B.
Opening to theistic and Christian explanations for natural
phenomena
C.
Opening for non-Darwinian, non-theistic explanations of life
D.
Brings into the spotlight the problem of evil—design
flaws or degenerated design?