Intelligent Design: The New Third Rail

It’s a quiet Sunday morning here in Munich, Germany as I do my morning search for “Geology News” (see http://www.christiangeology.com/geologynews.php) items of interest for my website. I have been maintaining that particular News Page for a little over a year now and, usually, I find at least one or two worthy items on any given day. A little over a month ago I started a new subsection of the Geology News service entitled “Creationism, Evolution, and Intelligent Design in the News”, in which I have isolated those particular issues from the regular Geology News. I have elected to write about this because of observations I have noted over the past week. Specifically, I am observing a marked increase of Internet News stories concerning the theory of Intelligent Design. And this past week there are more available storys on this subject than on pure geology.

This was not unexpected, in light of the fact that President Bush commented about his views on the subject to some newspaper reporters back in July. What was unexpected is the political faultlines that are appearing in the daily press. For reasons that can only be for political gain, it seems that many Republicans are jumping on the Intelligent Design bandwagon following Bush’s remarks. Conversely, many Democrats are running to support the Evolutionists and establishment science. Granted, this makes political sense, as a large portion of the Republican base are religious conservatives. And many of those religious conservatives subscribe to the Young Earth Creationist doctrines of “Creation Scientists” and certain Fundamental Christian Evangelists. What is interesting, however, is that those very Young Earth Creationists advocates have now been shuttled off to the sidelines. They no longer even have a dog in the fight. Why? Because the focus of the Creationism vs. Evolution public debate has shifted away from the question of “How old is the earth?” to the question “Should God be factored into interpretation of Earth’s Natural History?” And it has become a Hot Button, “Third Rail” political topic that will not be going away anytime soon.

With the exception of a small group of hardcore Fundamentalist fanatics who doggedly hold to Young Earth Creationist Doctrine, in spite of overwhelming Biblical and Scientific proof to the contrary, the rest of modern society accepts that the Earth is very, very old. That “rest of modern society” includes both moderate Christians who espouse Theological Evolution, other Christian Creationists, and non-Christians. This has happened because BOTH Intelligent Design Theory and Darwanian Evolutionary theory accept an Old Age for the Earth. So, with the Earth’s Age question removed from the debate equation, the true basement of the debate has finally been reached: Is there a God and should God’s existence be factored into the Scientific Method? Purist scientists say no. Much of the public, and many other scientists, are now saying yes! And neither group is divided along political party lines. So the issue is really not political, although some choose to try and make it so.

What I personally find most interesting is the observation that, in response to the growing interest in Intelligent Design Theory, the Darwanian Evolutionists are beginning to resemble the Young Earth Creationists in fanatical behavior, displaying circular reasoning (instead of cold logic) and launching personal attacks against any and all that oppose them. This irrational behavior is the topic of a recent commentary by David Lindbaugh entitled “Dogmatic Darwinists” on the WorldNetDaily.com website. His observations agree with mine. The proposition of Intelligent Design Theory has, effectively, broken the backs of the neo-Creationists (Young Earthers) and has also penetrated the armor of the defenders of Evolutionism. Perhaps, now, a way has been made for reasonable people to resolve the true issues between Biblical Creationism and Scientific Observations.