How Intelligent Design Hurts Conservatives (By making us look like crackpots)

The New Republic ^ | 8/16/05 | Ross Douthat

[TAdams8591]

It's not the Liberals I worry about appealing to, it's the undecided's and those in the middle.

[plain talk]

I'm also a believer, but treating a 2,000+ year old philosophical text that has been through multiple translations as literally as an automobile repair manual or calculus textbook definitely reflects a certain want of intellect.

A believer of what? Do you accept Jesus Christ, the son of God, came to earth and rose from the dead?

[kidkosmic1]

"God has already chosen your path for tomorrow. You have no choice."

WT, let's keep the bad theology out of this. Nothing turns people away from Christ like telling the world that the Lord who desires all to be saved also chooses some for salvation and some for damnation. It's nonsense.

curiosity thinks her evolution buddies can be keen on a naturalistic worldview (i.e. no God, no ID) and accept the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Balderdash.

[Hotdog]

Nope...just not ignorant enough to follow a name like yours...have a great day...

[TAdams8591]

I basically agree with your entire post.

[apackof2]

Using Scripture to prove Scripture is circular reasoning.

And using "theory" to prove "theory" is what kind of reasoning?

[curiosity]

Until someone can explain how life just magically "began" out of nothing with the ability to duplicate itself, the average person (especially conservatives) will continue to believe that God has a hand in developing and overseeing life on earth, and everything in this universe.

I agree, and I believe it too. So long as you believe God works through Darwinian processes, there is no conflict with the above and science.

That is not, however, what the intelligent design people are proposing. They're saying that Darwinian processes cannot explain certain "irreducibly complex" aspects of life. That's bunk.

I am of the belief that God created life on earth and continues to have a hand in its development.

What happens if some day scientists figure out how life spontaneously emerged from non-life? They haven't yet, but suppose they do. Will your faith in God be shaken? Mine won't, for I believe that God designed the laws of the Universe such that the emergence of life was inevitable.

That is not a belief that science could ever falsify, for it is completely outside the scope of science. I think there is a good philosophical case to be made for it, but it is not scientific.

[Jorge]

Are you saying that God does NOT know what you will do tomorrow?

Having foreknowledge of the future doesn't make God responsible for everybody's actions.

[Jeff Head]

Darwin's own theories has also been shown to have flaws...but adherents continue to push his envelope. I suspect that the same will be true of ID.

In that regard, IMHO, in such matters, flawed does not necessarily mean out of the question...or even wrong. Just that it needs fine tuning and tweeking to work those flaws out.

[DallasMike]

What makes you a crackpot is disbelieving the scientific evidence for evolution. And yes, you can believe in all three things: God, evolution, and the Bible.

Yes, you can, and you can also see that there are huge flaws with Darwinism without being a crackpot.

[aft_lizard]

Then you dont understand free will at all. GOD gave it to us, we did not take it or create it, why would GOD create something for which he gives freewill then remove its sole property by controlling it? Your initial argument was that foreknowledge by GOD meant since he knew all possible outcomes in your life, he therefore controlls your choices and it isnt freewill.

[apackof2]

Because of a Book.

So the Bible is just a book to you, like any other?

[syriacus]

Actually, the Sumerians named the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia as "Eden". They wrote it down long before Abram became Abraham.

That makes sense.

And Abraham, being from Ur, probably would have learned the same place names as his fellow Mesopotamians.

[muawiyah]

ROTFLMAO ~

[Revolting cat!]

XIX Century - Romanticism, Marxism, Darwinism, Freudianism, perpetual motion machines, snake oil;

XX Century - Fascism, Communism, Elvis impersonators, Deepak Chopra;

XXI Century - Intelligent design, Flat screens, End of History, Islamism (unfortunately), new energy sources, another Rolling Stones tour (Hey, it's still early!)

Let's get with the program you monkey uncles!

[Dimensio]

Darwin's own theories has also been shown to have flaws

Such as?

In that regard, IMHO, in such matters, flawed does not necessarily mean out of the question...or even wrong.

The problem isn't that ID is "proven wrong". I've never said that it has been. The problem is that the "evidence" pushed for ID is universally flawed or wrong-headed, and, unlike any scientific theory (including evolution), there is no hypothetical way to prove Intelligent Design wrong.

[Dimensio]

I guess you can take the chance and find out after you die but then of course its too late then for a change of heart

After death all conscious thought ceases and any previously held beliefs are rather irrelevant from a personal standpoint.

[apackof2]

Don't bother with WildTurkey, he is just "baiting" Christians with basically the same post.
Your not the only one who has replied with the same answer but he keeps his sad, silly, little game up

[Torie]

I don't think a candiate making an issue against a politician who believes that God had a hand in designing evolution will gain much traction. I don't think a politician suggesting that schools admit what we don't know, as well as what we know, per the scientific method, will bite the dust in most places either in America. I don't think this issue has much political traction at all frankly. It is of interest intellectually, but not politically. I think the author is engaging in wishful thinking about the way he wishes the American public square were, but isn't.

Just the opinion of a near Atheist who doubts that anyone was around to design anything. But that is beside the point. Most Americans profess a belief in God in any event.

[curiosity]

If God knows all you will do BEFORE you are born,you have no free will to do other than what he has already planned for you to do.

Nonsense. That God always knows what I do does not imply that God planned it.

Your problem is that you fail to grasp that God is not constrained by time. In that sense, it is not technically correct to say he knew about something before I did. He simply knows, not before, not after, but just knows at all times and all places everything. He transcends time.