Introduction to Intelligent Design
Joseph D. Renick
Grace Church
Albuquerque, NM
July 12, 2015
Outline
Intelligent Design and Worldview
Historical vs Modern view of ID
Intelligent Design - concept
Recent History of the Intelligent Design movement
Summary
The Question of Questions
“The question of questions for mankind—the
problem which underlies all others, and is more
deeply interesting than any other—is the
ascertainment of the place mankind occupies in
nature and of his relations to the universe of
things.”
Thomas Huxley, Man’s Place in Nature (1863)
Worldview
What is the nature of our existence?
Where did we come from? How did we get here?
Is there purpose and meaning to our existence?
Is our existence the result of unguided material causes alone or
is it the result of the work of a transcendent guiding
intelligence?
Is it by accident or design?
Whatever answer we give to this question, it will have a
profound affect on how we understand ourselves and our
place in the universe, the meaning and purpose of our
existence, the way we live our lives and our view of eternity.
The Enlightenment
What was the message of the Enlightenment?
Accident or Design?
What does the academics world tell us?
Hume on Design
The whole frame of nature bespeaks an intelligent author;
and no rational enquirer can, after serious reflection,
suspend his belief a moment with regard to the primary
principles of genuine Theism and Religion.
The universal propensity to believe in invisible, intelligent
power, if not an original instinct, being at least a general
attendant of human nature, may be considered as a kind of
mark or stamp, which the divine workman has set upon his
work; and nothing surely can more dignify mankind, than to
be thus selected from all other parts of the creation, and to
bear the image or impression of the universal Creator.
Hume on Design
What a noble privilege is it of human reason to attain the
knowledge of the supreme Being; and, from the visible
works of nature, be enabled to infer so sublime a principle
as its supreme Creator.
David Hume
Section 15, GENERAL COROLLARY, of his Natural History
Voltaire on Design
All nature cries aloud that there is a supreme
intelligence.
What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident?
No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there
exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent
being.
This is no matter of faith but of reason.
Voltaire
Causes in Nature
Chance…?
Roll of the dice, Russian roulette, asteroid impact, genetic
mutation…
Neccessity
Physical law (physics and chemistry)
Design
Intelligent agent acting purposefully
How did this come to be?
What is it that is distinctive about what we
see here that is in need of explanation?
Does it reflect Purpose?
The result of natural forces...
water and wind erosion?
What is the underlying
explanatory principle
at work here?
Shaped according to a
predetermined plan
by a designer?
Remnant of an
ancient mining
operation?
What is the
underlying
explanatory
principle
at work here?
The result of
chance and
natural
forces?
How did this come to be?
What is it that is distinctive about what we see
here that is in need of explanation?
Pattern, symmetry, order,
imperfections…
Design?
Ice
sculptor?
Does it
reflect
Purpose?
Underlying principle: natural laws, natural
processes and chance
How did this come to be?
What is it that is distinctive about what we see here
that is in need of explanation?
What is the underlying
explanatory principle
at work here?
Does it reflect Purpose?
The result of natural forces...
Water and wind erosion?
Shaped according to a
predetermined plan
by a designer?
What constitutes “evidence for design?”
The discovery of an object or pattern of events (a process) or
a particular arrangement in the natural world that…
Has purpose and function or carries information
(specified complexity)
Cannot reasonably be explained by the operation of
natural laws and chance alone
Intelligent Design
Intelligent Design is the hypothesis that certain features
observed in nature cannot be explained solely by the laws of
physics and chemistry, chance and time, and that these
features exhibit properties commonly attributed to design
Important design indicators are the appearance of some
combination of specification, information, low probability,
purpose and function in natural systems
A basis tenet of the Design Hypothesis is that design is
empirically detectable in nature through the methods of
science
What can be said scientifically about ID?
ID is the inference to design arising from direct observations of
natural phenomena that give the appearance of being
designed for a purpose
ID makes very modest claims and never goes beyond what the
evidence allows
Unlike Neo-Darwinism, ID is not a comprehensive theory of
biological origins. It produces no historical narrative that
makes grand sweeping claims about the causes of unobserved
events and processes that took place in the remote past
The design inference arising from physical evidence may have
religious implications but it does not depend on a religious
premise
How did this come to be?
What is it that is distinctive about what we
see here that is in need of explanation?
What is the underlying
explanatory principle at work here?
Does it reflect Purpose?
The result of a tornado hitting a
junk yard?
Form and function
determined according to a
predetermined plan
by a designer?
How did this come to be?
What is it that is distinctive about what we
see here that is in need of explanation?
What is the underlying explanatory
principle at work here?
Does it reflect Purpose?
The result of natural processes
and chance?
Form and function
determined according to a
predetermined plan
by a designer?
By what kind of reasoning
do you conclude that this
was designed…
…but this wasn’t?
Origins of the Modern Intelligent Design Movement
(The Official Story)
In 1987 in Edwards v. Aguillard, the Supreme Court ruled
that the teaching of Creationism in public schools was
unconstitutional
In response to this action creationists invented Intelligent
Design as a means for making an “end-run” around Edwards
v. Aguillard to sneak Creationism back into the classroom
A review of the actual history from 1950 to the present
reveals a completely different…and far more
interesting…account of the origins of the modern intelligent
design movement
Origins of the Modern Intelligent Design Movement
Biology
1950’s
Watson-Crick
Miller-Urey Expt
Sputnik, 1957
Darwinian Centennial
“The Modern Synthesis”
Nirenberg – genetic code
1960’s
Biological Sciences
Curriculum Study (NSF)
1970’s
Dean Kenyon – “Biological
Predestination” (OoL)
Revolution in
Molecular and
Cellular Biology
ND Trouble Brewing
Creation Science
Intelligent Design
Sir Julian Huxley: “..all aspects of
reality are subject to evolution…in
the evolutionary pattern of thought
there is no longer need or room for
the supernatural… The earth was
not created; it evolved. So did all
the animals and plants that inhabit
it, including our human selves, mind
and soul as well as brain and body.
So did religion. The evolutionary
vision is enabling us to discern…the
lineaments of the new religion that
we can be sure will arise to serve
the needs of the coming era.”
Origins of the Modern Intelligent Design Movement
Biology
ND Trouble Brewing
1950’s
Watson-Crick
Miller-Urey Expt
Sputnik, 1957
Darwinian Centennial
“The Modern Synthesis”
Nirenberg – genetic code
1960’s
Biological Sciences
Curriculum Study (NSF)
1970’s
Schutzenberger: “There is a
considerable gap in the Neo-Darwinian
theory of evolution and we believe that
this gap cannot be bridged within the
current conception of biology.”
Thomas Kuhn
“The Structure of Scientific
Revolution”
Wistar Symposium
Dean Kenyon – “Biological
Predestination” (OoL)
Revolution in
Molecular and
Cellular Biology
Creation Science
Intelligent Design
Waddington: “Your
argument is simply
that life must have
come about by
special Creation.”
“Genesis Flood”
Whitcomb & Morris
“NO!”
Alpbach Symposium
It got ugly!
Scientific
dissent from
Neo-Darwinism
No mathematicians
allowed!
Origins of the Modern Intelligent Design Movement
Biology
ND Trouble Brewing
Creation Science
1950’s
Watson-Crick
Miller-Urey Expt
Sputnik, 1957
Darwinian Centennial
“The Modern Synthesis”
Nirenberg – genetic code
1960’s
Biological Sciences
Curriculum Study (NSF)
Dean Kenyon – “Biological
Predestination” (OoL)
Thomas Kuhn
“The Structure of Scientific
Revolution”
“Genesis Flood”
Whitcomb & Morris
Wistar Symposium
Institute for Creation
Research
Alpbach Symposium
Epperson v. Arkansas
1970’s
Burgess Shale - Revision
Revolution in
Molecular and
Cellular Biology
Kenyon – second thoughts
Doubts about Miller-Urey
Denton’s initial doubts
Gould & Eldredge
“Punctuated Equilibrium”
“Scientific Creationism”,
Henry Morris (1974)
Intelligent Design
Origins of the Modern Intelligent Design Movement
Biology
ND Trouble Brewing
Creation Science
Intelligent Design
1950’s
Watson-Crick
Miller-Urey Expt
Sputnik, 1957
Darwinian Centennial
“The Modern Synthesis”
Nirenberg – genetic code
1960’s
Biological Sciences
Curriculum Study (NSF)
Dean Kenyon – “Biological
Predestination” (OoL)
Thomas Kuhn
“The Structure of Scientific
Revolution”
“Genesis Flood”
Whitcomb & Morris
Wistar Symposium
Institute for Creation
Research
Alpbach Symposium
Epperson v. Arkansas
1970’s
Burgess Shale - Revision
Revolution in
Molecular and
Cellular Biology
Kenyon – second thoughts
Doubts about Miller-Urey
Denton’s initial doubts
Grasse’s Bombshell (1977)
Gould & Eldredge
“Punctuated Equilibrium”
“Scientific Creationism”,
Henry Morris (1974)
Grasse: “It is
possible that in
this domain,
biology—
impotent—yields
the floor to
metaphysics.”
Origins of the Modern Intelligent Design Movement
Biology
ND Trouble Brewing
Creation Science
Intelligent Design
1980’s
Denton begins to write
Chicago/NY Meetings
Molecular and
Cellular Biology
Hoyle, Patterson , Crick
Thaxton, Bradley, Olsen:
Mystery of Life’s Origins
Gould’s bombshell
Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
Edwards v Aguillard
Gould: Wonderful Life
The Human Genome
Project Launched
Johnson reads Denton
Behe reads Denton
Discovery Institute
Phillip
Johnson:
that
life
was
Darwin on Trial
2000’s
1990’s
Hoyle: (1985) “The theory
Patterson: (1981) “Can you tell me one
by an intelligence has, we
thing about evolution that is true—anyassembled
one
Systems Biology
believe,
a probability
higher Behe:
than one
Gould:
“The extreme
rarityvastly
of Michael
thing at all?”
th Darwin’s Black Box
part informs
10 to the
40,000
transitional
in the
fossil power…The
speculations
were wrong…It is
record
persists as of
theDarwin
trade secret
Hoyle: Mathematics
Michael Denton:
ironic that the scientific facts
throw
of Evolution of paleontology. The evolutionary
Nature’s Destiny
outour
buttext
leave
William Paley, a
trees Darwin
that adorn
books
Wells: Icons of Evolution figure of fun to the scientific world for more
have data only at the tips and
Crick: (1981)
“An
honest
man,
armed with all
The Human Genome
a century,
still in
the
tournament
with a
Ward,
Brownlee:
Rare
Earththan
Projectavailable
draft
nodes
of their
branches;
the
rest
is
Gonzales,
Richards:
the knowledge
to us now, could only
chance
of being
the ultimate
winner.”Planet
The Privileged
however
reasonable,
state that in some sense, the origin of life inference,
Kitzmiller v Dover
not the evidence of fossils…” (in
appears at the moment to be almost a miracle,
The Panda’s Thumb”, 1985)
so many are the conditions which would have
had to have been satisfied to get it going.”
Summary
The modern Intelligent Design movement emerged out of
a scientific dissent from Neo-Darwinism resulting from
scientific discoveries in molecular and cellular biology
It appears that Darwin was wrong regarding both his theses
Microevolution does not extrapolate to macroevolution
The fossil record does not support Darwin’s common
ancestry descent model of the history of life
Intelligent design is based on direct observations of
design-like features in biology and cosmology
The inference to design has religious implications but
does not depend on a religious premise