ENGAGING CULTURE

I was was very impressed with, Expelled, the new documentary by Ben Stein on the debate between Darwinian Evolution and Intelligent Design. The quality and humor of the film reminded me of a Michael Moore Documentary, except instead of only presenting one side of the argument, Stein gave equal time for the opposing group to present their views.

This is a huge discussion and cannot be handled in one post. Over the next two weeks before the movie is released on April 18th I will look at some of the main points of the debate and open this site for discussion of them.

What is Darwinian Evolution?

To begin with, I just want to give a quick overview of the debate. The Darwinian Evolution addressed in the movie is defined by the University of California at Berkeley as “descent with modification. This definition encompasses small-scale evolution (changes in gene frequency in a population from one generation to the next) and large-scale evolution (the descent of different species from a common ancestor over many generations)… Through the process of descent with modification, the common ancestor of life on Earth gave rise to the fantastic diversity that we see documented in the fossil record and around us today. Evolution means that we’re all distant cousins: humans and oak trees, hummingbirds and whales.”

What is Intelligent Design?

Proponents of Intelligent Design don’t have any trouble with the first part of that definition, that minor changes take place within a population over time, but most would disagree with the idea that many different species have arisen from a common ancestor. But that is the central idea of Darwinian Evolution. It also has no answer to the origin of life. Yes, all the necessary components were available, but what made them go from soup to cell? This is the essential difference. Intelligent Design says that the immense complexity and genetic information present in life calls for an answer to that question. Where does that information originate? From random natural processes (mutation, migration, genetic drift, and natural selection) or intelligence. Years of wind and water erosion may shape a stone, it may even vaguely resemble something, but to think that Mt. Rushmore is a natural phenomenon is just absurd.

But this question is being silenced in institutions, classrooms and research labs. Because their atheism has made them blind to the possibility that there may be forces at work outside of this natural world. And because the status quo is being questioned. Next post I will look at the philosophical consequences of Darwinian Evolution and then give you some ideas about how you can get this debate started in your church, school, workplace, and home.

So where do you fall in this debate? Do you have friends like I do who are atheistic evolutionists? Do you think it is a subject that needs to be discussed, why?