Reflections on William Dembski and James Kushiner’s Signs of Intelligence

2003-04-26

This book is written by various authors with specialties in relation with intelligent design. This is a field of scientific study that is empirical, not materialistic. What has happened to modern science is the steadfastness of Darwinism and neo-Darwinism to the point where it is not looked at as something that is a possible worldview based of off scientific hypothesis, but as a dogmatic inerrant fact. This is making a religion of science, that holds to the idea that they deal only with the natural world. One scientist even said that materialism is absolute, and that they cannot let a divine foot in the door.

The scientists hold to a vast minority of what people believe to be true. Most people believe that there is a divine hand somewhere in the equation, even if the method is evolution. But the scientist nearly has the monopoly on cultural extravagance. What they say is fact, and, according to some, the rest are ignorant or insane.

The cultural implications are awful. People’s circumstances and flaws are excused by scientific materialistic thinking. This includes crime. This seems true today. People out there always want to excuse others because of their circumstances in life, if such were exposed to atrocities during their childhood. Communism points backward to evolutionary thinking.

With the concept of Intelligent Design, there is a possibility to get away from the usual thinking that scientists have stubbornly gotten into, and to look objectively at materialism. Although Intelligent Design is not a creation-evolution issue, nor is it a God of the Bible issue, it is an idea that bring about new thinking that Darwinian thinking is steadfastness to a creed that has discouraged thinking for oneself. It is an initial step to get people to see a divine hand in the picture. Though the schools of thought are going to be diverse, there is a common ground that there is greater possibility for design than for plain materialism.

We are seeing in this age the results of materialism. Human value has been reduced to nothing. Those with handicaps are seen as unfit to live, as one the authors in this book quoted another scholar. In all sincerity, if there is nothing but matter, then why do we remain living in this world and suffer and fear about the precariousness of the world situations around us? If that was all there was to life, why do people flaunt this bankrupt view to humanity? Why do they care so much to defend it? We have seen the answer time after time, but I wonder what is happening inside these people’s minds, and even hearts. Is it despair? The book took from many issues spoken of in the first and second weekends.

An interesting thought I have is why this issue of materialism is such an issue. Most people claim not to believe in it, but it is a rampant epidemic within our culture that has escorted in post-modernism quickly, despite of what scholars and scientists have against post-modernism. The subtlety of this worldview is getting into the modern generations’ heads by education, and they are signing off on it. As a professor once said at the college, sin stems from wrong thinking about God. Our thinking is so far from Him in our world system, that is certainly catching up with us this time. This is where Intelligent Design is going to meet the scientists well, one hopes. This worldview might start a revolution within those culturally elitist scientists that can get them back to real science before their false religion takes over anything that resembles God.