Saturday, December 10, 2005

Intelligent Design or Natural Design

I'm going to begin by taking you on a personal tour of my own thinking about intelligent design over the past 60 years.

It began in 1945 when I was a 14 year old at Mt Albert Grammar. Our Fourth Form English teacher decided we should learn the skills of debating. The topic chosen was "Creation versus Evolution". And I, as an ardent young Baptist, volunteered, along with a Seventh Day Adventist, to take up the cudgels on behalf of Creation.

But even before the debate began, I found myself cast in the role of devil's advocate.

While preparing, it dawned on me that the case against evolution foundered on an ambiguity between two meanings of the simple word "creation": the concept of general creation, and the concept of special creation.

To believe in the theological doctrine of general creation is merely to believe in a God who created the universe. Clearly, I could, without inconsistency, believe in general creation and also believe in the Theory of Evolution. I simply had to regard Darwinian natural selection as one of the laws of nature that God built into his creation...more here

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