written extensively on evolution<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\nIntelligent Design and the Artist\u2019s Soul, in Three Acts<\/p>\n
![\"DiscInst.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/DiscInst.jpg\")
<\/span>In his
\narticle \u201cFive Streams of the Emerging Church,\u201d Scot McKnight identifies
\nwith Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger\u2019s description of emerging Christians.\u00a0
\nOne of the nine hallmarks of such Christians, according to the authors,
\nis that they \u201ccreate as created beings.\u201d\u00a0 And it is this theme I would
\nlike to explore with reference to Darwinian evolution and intelligent
\ndesign (ID) in a series of two posts.\u00a0 We will consider how to
\nconsider ID, assess conceptions of God in this debate, and we will reflect upon aesthetics and Darwinian theory.<\/p>\nWhat to make of intelligent design?<\/p>\n
Questions for our readers: What do you make of intelligent design? How do you define it? Do you think we have too often used sloppy definitions of it?<\/b><\/p>\n
\nYears ago, before I had heard of Neil Postman, before I had given much thought to the role pictures play in our mental life, I read Edward Larson\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning Summer for the Gods.\u00a0 Upon putting it down, I was struck by one simple fact:\u00a0 Everything I thought I knew about The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 \u2018just ain\u2019t so.\u2019<\/p>\n
With reflection, the disturbing fact emerged that I had absorbed the black-and-white images of \u201cInherit the Wind.\u201d\u00a0 Sure, I knew it was a play.\u00a0 Yet apparently the part of my brain overseeing history is not divorced from the part processing art.\u00a0 Plato was right.\u00a0 Art can be dangerous, for it provides a window into the soul.<\/p>\n
The same cautionary tale applies to the Christian in the case of ID.\u00a0 We had better be careful that we assess facts, evidence, and narrative carefully rather than absorbing the assessments of our secular peers by osmosis. \u00a0<\/p>\n
It is impossible for the thinking Christian to put down all the invisible cultural baggage he or she\u00a0 carries\u2013both Christian and secular narratives\u2013in order to consider ID\u2019s claims on their own terms.\u00a0 But we can try to clear confusion.\u00a0 So let\u2019s start with what ID is and is not.\u00a0 Contrary to popular assumptions, ID is not Biblical creationism.\u00a0 It does not get into the recesses of Old Testament exegesis, nor is it meant to reveal the full nature of God.<\/p>\n
ID is more modest, asking a simple question:\u00a0 When all of the scientific (not religious) evidence is put on the table, are certain features of nature better explained by an intelligent cause or by unintelligent causes like natural selection?<\/p>\n
Now where does the artist fit in?\u00a0 Well, let\u2019s put down our culture war armor for a moment.\u00a0 Let\u2019s drop the usual visuals.\u00a0 We are not dealing with men in white lab coats versus backwoods basement Bible-thumpers.\u00a0 My friends in the ID movement have doctorates from Cambridge, The University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, CalTech, etc.\u00a0 They\u2019ve done post-docs at Columbia, Harvard, and other major institutions.\u00a0 So let us re-imagine the narrative for a minute, wipe away the horizion, you and me.<\/p>\n
Let us see the ID theorist the way we see an art historian at The Smithsonian who has just received a heretofore lost and unsigned Renaissance masterpiece.\u00a0 She must do some detective work.\u00a0 Are there not systematic and scientific ways for the art historian to learn about the cause(s) of this painting? \u00a0<\/p>\n
I propose that this is the way we should view the ID theorist.\u00a0 Returning to nature, in this view we see the ID theorist looking for positive signs of intelligent design and running tests to see if mere material causes are adequate to explain the artifact.\u00a0 In the case of the painting, material causes will never be adequate.\u00a0 Perhaps nature is like this, too.\u00a0 We should not judge this a priori.\u00a0 This is not a question of proving God\u2019s existence or of Biblical fundamentalism.\u00a0 This is about what sorts of causes are necessary to explain certain features of nature.\u00a0 The emerging Christian knows God is the ultimate author of nature, so perhaps this will be scientifically detectable, or perhaps it will not.\u00a0 We should encourage scientists to find out.<\/p>\n
The sensitive-souled Christian will not let the Scopes narrative\u2013and the charge that consideration of design in nature is somehow anti-intellectual\u2013get in the way this legitimate pursuit for the causes of natural phenomena.<\/p>\n
Next week we will look at God and Beauty in light of Intelligent Design.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This two-part series on Intelligent Design, in part a response to our ongoing discussions about evolution, is by Logan Paul Gage, a policy analyst at the Discovery Institute and who has written extensively on evolution. Intelligent Design and the Artist\u2019s Soul, in Three Acts In his article \u201cFive Streams of the Emerging Church,\u201d Scot McKnight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[480],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-faith"],"yoast_head":"\n
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