A Problem with Old Earth Intelligent Design

I first encountered Janos, a Hungarian Jew, at Living Water Baptist Church in Budapest. He is a professed atheist. His mother survived Auschwitz, and I suspect that his family history has a lot to do with his rejection of God. His confusion may in part be due to a failure to take the first three chapters of Genesis seriously.

Let me illustrate from a discussion between David Berlinski, David Gelernter and Stephen Meyer, moderated by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution. Berlinski, who now lives in France, and Gelernter, a professor at Yale, are American Jews who lost family members in the Holocaust. Gelernter’s fame comes from his work with computers and his investigation of human consciousness. Berlinski specializes in the philosophy of science. He and Meyer are fellows of the Discovery Institute, a think tank that promotes Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design is an argument against Darwinism that relies on scientific evidence without direct reference to God or Christian theism. As far as I can tell, Berlinski is the only agnostic among the fellows of the Institute.

All three panellists have unusually sharp intellects. All are authors of an impressive list of books. One of Meyer’s books, Darwin’s Doubt, persuaded the other two men to reject Darwinism.

The discussion, which lasts nearly an hour, is at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noj4phMT9OE&t=62s. I recommend that you watch the whole things, but if you don’t have the time, you could skip the first 30 minutes, which concentrate on the science, and go directly to the part that speaks of God and religion. As expressed by Gelernter, the main problem that the two Jews have with theism is the disorder and cruelty in the world. If the world and life came about through intelligent design, why is the world in such a mess today?

It seems to me that old earth creationism/theistic evolution does not give an adequate answer to the existence of disorder and death, both of which had to have happened before the Fall in their view. I suspect that, Berlinski and Gelernter’s rejection of God does not so much stem from scientific evidence as from their bitterness against God for the ills of mankind in general and of the Jews in particular.

While I highly recommend much of the materials produced by the Intelligent Design movement, I would be even more impressed if they would come to grips with the implications of Fall and the fact that “by man came death” (I Cor. 15:21).

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David Potter serves as a missionary in Hungary with Baptist World Mission.