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I recently watched part of a Nova program called "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial". The program focused on the controversy over Intelligent Design which played out in a 2005 court case in Pennsylvania, Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District. It didn’t take long to determine that Intelligent Design was being “judged” by the now familiar standard of the faithful adherents of Darwin’s theory of evolution. (As I write this, the entire program can be viewed online, along with gloating that the judge ruled in favor of the evolutionists.)

In this case, the opponents of Intelligent Design insisted that ID should not be taught in science classes because it is not science, but rather stealth creationism, which they relegate to religion rather than science. I submit, however, that if a topic should not be taught in science classes because it belongs to the realm of religion, then atheistic evolution should be kicked out of the classroom as well.

Did I lose you there?

Christians believe in God, and their faith is based on evidence. In Psalm 19, the Bible offers the entire universe as evidence.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

As if that were not sufficient, we have the life of Jesus Christ, his miracles, and his resurrection. All these things are recorded history. Interestingly, the single most documented fact of history, both religious and secular, is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians are not lacking in evidence to support their faith.

Atheistic evolutionists believe there is no God. This is a presupposition held without evidence—indeed, they will hold it despite mountains (literally) of evidence to the contrary. Their theory of origins is mechanistic, i.e., based on this presupposition that God does not exist. It is an article of faith (being unprovable by science) concerning which they tolerate no dissent, stridently ridiculing those who dare to question them on this point. In that their presupposition concerns the existence of God, it is inescapably religious in character. Thus, atheistic evolutionists are essentially people of religious faith, believing tenaciously in that which they cannot prove.

That is not the end of the evolutionists’ faith. When they study the fossil record, they interpret their findings based on a presupposition about what happened across millions of years. They call it uniformitarianism. Since, in their view, there is no God to intervene in history, they assume that all things in nature operated in the past in precisely the same way they do now. This is also an article of faith, because they can only make guesses about events and conditions that they did not observe and cannot replicate. They cannot even demonstrate that their “millions of years” happened. All these things are articles of faith, not science.

Now, Christians and atheists can look at the fossil record, or any other physical evidence for that matter. It is available to all. Given their religious presuppositions, however—and both sets of presuppositions are undeniably religious—being based on faith in what cannot be scientifically proven, they will come to different conclusions about what the evidence means. Since the evidence in both cases is interpreted according to the faith of the observer, who is to say that one set of conclusions can be taught in science classes and the other cannot?

Let’s sum it all up. If what is taught in a science class must meet the test of being non-religious, neither Creationism, nor Intelligent Design, nor Atheistic Evolution should be taught. As a matter of fact, since the question of the origins of what is studied must be the basis for determining the nature of what is studied, science cannot be divorced from religion. Christians know this, and their understanding of origins provides a reliable framework for their study of science. Atheists struggle to deny the connection between their religion and their science, and are thus forced to make absurd claims in defense of their position.

Let’s suppose that you were to take a walk with an atheistic evolutionist on an island that had apparently never been visited before by humans. On the side of a hill you discovered a Rolex watch in perfect condition, ticking away. If you were to surmise aloud to your atheist friend that the watch was merely an accidental accumulation of atoms occurring over millions of years, I suspect he would laugh you to scorn. He would have every right to do so. That a Rolex watch is designed, and that there was, therefore, a designer, is self-evident. It is beyond argument. Such a sophisticated effect demands an intelligent cause.

When your atheist friend looks at you, however—you who are infinitely more complex and obviously designed than a watch—he suddenly can’t find any evidence of a connection between you and an intelligent designer. He has no trouble, however, believing that you are the product of random mutations in a chaotic universe. He will swallow the ridiculous in order to deny the obvious.

Of course, we Christians know why the atheistic evolutionist holds to this double standard. If he were to admit that we humans are designed, he would also have to admit the intelligence and power of the designer. He would have to admit that he owes his own existence to a being higher than himself. For him, this points too powerfully to the God of the Bible. Committed as he is to his own autonomy—to man as the determiner of all things through science—he cannot face the reality that he is accountable to a Creator who is all-wise and omnipotent. Thus he will make the most outlandish claims about nature and the universe in order to avoid such an awful admission.

Do not let the so-called wise men of this age push you out of the arena of ideas. The theory of evolution remains a theory because, in the world God created and sustains, its premises are either false or unproved, or both. Let evolutionists understand that trying ever so zealously to censor Intelligent Design and Creationism will never justify declaring the theory of evolution to be a fact.

Copyright 2007 Mark L. Beuligmann

"Point of Reference" from Fred Price

Called To Brokenness