Thinking Christian: Challenging Darwin

A billboard honoring Charles Darwin's birthday on Feb. 12 debuted this week on Route 74 in York County, just north of Dover, where a 2005 federal court ruling halted the local school board's attempts to integrate intelligent design into science curricula.

Sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation and PA Nonbelievers, the billboard reads, "Praise Darwin, Evolve Beyond Belief." Annie Laurie Gaylor, foundation co-president, said in a statement, "We want to 'Praise Darwin,' to give credit to human intelligence, not the supernatural, for answering the question, 'Where do we come from?' And who greater than Charles Darwin?"

The foundation said the phrase "Evolve Beyond Belief" is directed toward the 55 percent of Americans who, according to a 2004 CBS News poll, believe God created life.

Predictably, the billboard is stirring controversy among York-area Christians, particularly among members of the Dover school board who rallied in favor of intelligent design.

Christians devoted to promoting balanced science education in public schools have every reason to be disgruntled. According to the same CBS poll, 65 percent of Americans -- both Christian and non-Christian -- favor teaching both evolution and creationism in public schools. But this majority is overruled by the scientific elite, a group remaining staunchly committed to evolution.

Ben Stein examines the stigma associated with intelligent design and creationism in his documentary, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." After interviewing nine scientists who were either fired or ostracized for professing a belief in intelligent design, Stein proposes academic freedom no longer exists in America.

During one of the most shocking interviews in the documentary, Stein discusses the origin of life with Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion" and hailed as one of the most prominent atheists in the world. Surprisingly, Dawkins readily admits life may have come about through some means of intelligent design.

"It could be that at some earlier time somewhere in the universe a civilization evolved to a very, very high level of technology and designed the form of life on this planet," he said in the interview. "Now that is a possibility and an intriguing possibility. I suppose you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry and molecular biology. You might find a signature of some sort of designer."

Ironically, Dawkins perfectly explains the motivating factor for scientists who choose to study intelligent design and creationism: every part of this world, down to the tiniest molecule, is more complex than man's greatest inventions and points to a powerful creator.

Perhaps in realizing his admission, Dawkins quickly said, "That designer could well be a higher intelligence from elsewhere in the universe, but that higher intelligence would have had to come about through an explicable process. It couldn't have just jumped into existence."

It seems laughable Dawkins is willing to credit a higher intelligence such as aliens as the creators of the world, as opposed to a God who is infinitely more powerful and intelligent than aliens and who exists, according to 92 percent of Americans in a 2008 Pew Forum study.

Indeed, Dawkins would never acknowledge the existence of an omniscient, omnipresent God, as doing so would mean human life has intrinsic value, moral absolutes exist and humanistic evolution is null and void.

The battle for academic freedom in the scientific arena is far from over, but Christians can take active measures to combat the evident bias against intelligent design and creationism.

Stein and Discovery Institute, a non-religious research group devoted to intelligent design, have teamed up to promote the Academic Freedom Act. If passed, the act would protect the rights of students, professors and scientists to debate evolution in an appropriate manner.

To support the act, Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture is hosting Academic Freedom Day on Feb. 12, Darwin's birthday, encouraging students to set up displays on their campuses to promote awareness about the shunning of intelligent design and creationism.

Even Darwin said in his first edition of "On the Origin of the Species," "A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question."

Only when intelligent design and creationism are protected in academia can the fundamental freedoms of all Americans -- including the 55 percent who believe God created life -- be restored. source>>>

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