Intelligent design—allies of biblical creationists? We’ve said for years that the Intelligent Design (ID) movement—the idea that certain features in various living things were designed by an “intelligent cause” rather than through solely naturalistic processes—is incomplete. While certain ID arguments about design are helpful in pointing people to the Creator (and we use many of them in various ways), ID arguments aren’t enough. Why is that?
The creator might be the biblical God (there are some biblical creationists in the movement), the Muslim god, an alien, or some other “intelligent cause.”
In the ID movement, any creator god will do. The creator might be the biblical God (there are some biblical creationists in the movement), the Muslim god, an alien, or some other “intelligent cause.” I was reminded of this by a recent article from Evolution News, a popular ID site, “Muslims Should be Natural Allies of Intelligent Design.” The article bemoaned the lack of Muslim support for Intelligent Design (most Muslims accept evolution but believe in a creator), saying:
Given that ID and evolution in this broad sense are entirely compatible, it seems to me that Muslims should be natural allies of the ID movement in their shared concern over the effects of scientific materialism on their communities and society at large.
So, according to this ID writer, not only is ID compatible with evolution (not purely naturalistic evolution, though), but it’s compatible with Muslim theology and so more Muslims should join the ID movement. This is possible because ID doesn’t name the creator and has no ultimate authority beyond human reasoning.
As biblical creationists, we can recognize, along with those in the ID movement, that nature is clearly designed—life in all its marvelous complexity couldn’t have come about by naturalistic processes. (The Bible itself says that God’s existence and attributes are clearly seen in creation; see Romans 1.) But we don’t stop there.
The Bible’s history doesn’t just tell us God made things; it gives us the biological, geological, astronomical, cosmological, paleontological, and anthropological history of the world!
We use the Bible as our framework for understanding the world around us. This means we don’t just claim there’s a Creator. Instead, we understand God made a perfect world only about 6,000 years ago that was marred by human sin. Then there was a global flood that catastrophically reshaped the world and the event at the tower of Babel resulted in people groups around the world. The Bible’s history doesn’t just tell us God made things; it gives us the biological, geological, astronomical, cosmological, paleontological, and anthropological history of the world!
And this history has real consequences. For example, those in the ID movement can’t answer the question of death and suffering. Without the Bible, they don’t teach the true history of the world: that there was a perfect creation, but it was broken by our sin—and that’s why there’s death, suffering, carnivory, and other ugliness in our world.
And ID also can’t provide people with the ultimate hope they need: the gospel message! Without God’s Word and the biblical Creator, there’s no hope because there’s no Jesus who stepped into history, died on the cross in our place taking the penalty of death for us, and rose from the grave, offering eternal life to all who will believe in him.
Yes, the Creator’s fingerprints are seen in what he has made—but don’t stop there. Point people toward the Word of God and the saving gospel!
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:7).
Get More Answers on Answers News
This item was discussed yesterday on Answers News with cohosts Patricia Engler, Dr. Georgia Purdom, and Tim Chaffey. Answers News is our twice-weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience and broadcast on my Facebook page and the Answers in Genesis Facebook page. We also covered the following topics:
- Will Canada prosecute people for “hate crimes” . . . that they haven’t even committed yet?
- Did humans come from three main groups?
- Are aliens too scared of us to visit?
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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken
This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.