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TechnoratiIt seems perplexing to people that the faculty at Southern Methodist University would object to arguments from science that would confirm some belief they have as Christians. But the truth of the matter is that scientific materialism is so pervasive that it is almost as common in Christian universities as it is at state universities.
CP: What do you think is the most difficult thing when trying to promote intelligent design, and do you feel that it is any closer to being accepted as something that could go into schools?
Richards: Well, let me bracket off the school question, because I think that any idea that is going to be widely discussed, or certainly, mandated in a public school, needs to gain a hearing in the public at large. None of us involved in the intelligent design debate think that ID should be imposed from the top down like some government bureaucrat.
I do think that the biggest impediment for ID getting a better hearing is what I would call a ‘Scope’s Monkey Trial stereotype.’ In part, it’s this idea from American history since 1925 that conveys whether a teacher can express Darwin’s theory of evolution. At that time, the issue was whether the state could suppress the discussion of Darwinism. The issue actually has fled to the opposite direction since then. So now the question is whether the teacher is even free to discuss criticism of Darwinism. Now, even if the teacher tries to raise criticism of Darwinism apart from an argument for intelligent design, they can find themselves a target of a lawsuit.
The problem is that this issue is not easily squeezed into this iron box of the Scope’s Monkey Trial, and there are much more complicated and subtle issues here. It’s not simply a question of whether God created the universe in six 24-hour days or whether a teacher should be able to teach about Darwinism. All of us in the design movement believe that teachers should be able to talk freely and openly about Darwinism. We expect that means teaching both its strengths and weaknesses and not simply a one-sided propagandistic presentation of the evidence.
CP: I’ve heard many people say that intelligent design is simply evolution, except that it’s evolution with a creator molding that. Do you think that’s a fair assessment or are there much larger differences between evolution and intelligent design?
Richards: Intelligent design is essentially a theory about the detection of design. It’s not a theory that specifically says which individual species where designed, or something like that.
Design is consistent with a variety of different natural histories. One instance is that we have one general universal common descent, that all organisms share a common ancestor. The main difference is that, for Darwinism, this is related to the Darwinian mechanism. Any design view of evolution is going to do real work; there will be real design in the process. It’s not going to be a purely impersonal process like natural selection.
Also, it’s not just that a designer does real work, but that it’s detectable. When you look at biological forms, we would see the activities of an intelligent agent. That’s the main point of intelligent design theory. It’s the detectability of intelligent agency. Continue »
