I am in Seattle, Washington for this year's Seminar on ID in the Natural Sciences at the Discovery Institute. I arrived here last night after midnight (local time) with a guy from Europe who rode the same shuttle as I did. Of course, something got screwed up and they didn't have a room for me, so we waited for awhile until everything was put in order.
My new friend from Europe - I'll call him Stefan. This is not his real name, and I won't be identifying his home country because we are under very strict guidelines not to "out" anyone as an Intelligent Design (ID) advocate lest careers be ruined. Yes, Victoria, there is real hatred out there in the world, and some of that is directed toward those who, in an ironic twist, have the temerity to bring competition to the intellectual landscape to see which idea is the fittest to survive.
In this contest for survival there is no question in my mind that Intelligent Design will win the day. Not this year, probably not in 5-10 years, but in the next generation or two, some version ID will be the standard view in biology and the hard sciences.
Why am I so confident? Because we live in God's world. God is, among other things and at the very least, intelligent. And since he actually did design life and the world in which it flourishes, then the evidence will continue to pile up and pile up. Evolutionists and died-in-the-wool naturalists will be wading in rivers of design evidence so high that they will need their metaphysical snorkels to breathe before they give in, but it will happen.
Giving in to ID does not mean, however, that suddenly the world will fall down and worship the Creator. As one of my professors at Biola, Dr. Keas, recently quipped, humans are creative in their sinfulness, and so some other lie will take its place to steal the hearts of those who continue to suppress the truth. The emperor still will not have any clothes on, but his tailors will at least provide a new suit for him.
(By the way, for those of you who are interested in answering questions regarding the Christian faith - fellow apologists by interest and training - we will need an apologetic prepared and waiting for when this transition begins. For my money I think that some sort of pantheistic, New Age-ish deception will be the reigning paradigm in time.)
So, anyway, here I am to sit at the feet of the experts in the various aspects of ID. My hope and prayer is that I can take what I learn through this experience and through my graduate work at Biola and use it to a) encourage the faith of other believers, b) equip other believers to engage the culture, and c) to advocate for ID in the public square.
To loosely quote Paul, pray for me that God may open doors for ministry in this area.
ID is not creationism, but it is an important tool in our defense of the Christian worldview.
Now, I've got some reading to do for my upcoming sessions so...ciao!
No comments:
Post a Comment