ID embraces two clashing deities
Crews ponders the consequences of evolutionary theism.
From “Saving us from Darwin”
by Frederick C. Crews
Reposted from: http://richarddawkins.net/article,2712,Saving-Us-from-Darwin,Frederick-C-Crews
Originally at: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/14581
Even the theology, moreover, would be hobbled by contradictions. Intelligent design awkwardly embraces two clashing deities—one a glutton for praise and a dispenser of wrath, absolution, and grace, the other a curiously inept cobbler of species that need to be periodically revised and that keep getting snuffed out by the very conditions he provided for them. Why, we must wonder, would the shaper of the universe have frittered away thirteen billion years, turning out quadrillions of useless stars, before getting around to the one thing he really cared about, seeing to it that a minuscule minority of earthling vertebrates are washed clean of sin and guaranteed an eternal place in his company? And should the God of love and mercy be given credit for the anopheles mosquito, the schistosomiasis parasite, anthrax, smallpox, bubonic plague…? By purporting to detect the divine signature on every molecule while nevertheless conceding that natural selection does account for variations, the champions of intelligent design have made a conceptual mess that leaves the ancient dilemmas of theodicy harder than ever to resolve.
Posted in Rationalism, Science
June 13th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Biological life came about through either creation or evolution. If evolution was the mechanism that a theistic God used to create life, we’re really talking about an entirely new religion because of the implications natural selection casts on the Deity.