I thought it might be fitting to offer a few brief words of appreciation for that ancient movement, which has not entirely disappeared even today, which took the argument from design completely seriously. I am thinking, of course, of the Gnostics. They were Biblical literalists to boot, taking at face value the references to God’s apparent ignorance of where Adam and Eve were, and other details that usually are taken as symbolic anthropomorphisms. When that was combined with their “design theory”, it led them quickly to the conclusion that the highest God known through philosophy cannot be the same as the creator of this material world, with all its flaws and imperfections.
Having pointed out that Biblical literalism is the fast track to atheism, it seems only fair to point out where the Intelligent Design track leads…
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