Confused on what to think

sfs

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So is intelligent design basically 100% disproven at this point?
'Intelligent design' can mean a range of things. That God is the designer of the universe is a belief shared by nearly all Christians, regardless of their views on evolution vs direct creation. Some arguments for intelligent design, like fine tuning arguments, are rather philosophical and difficult to either prove or disprove. As for the arguments that attempt a more scientific approach, like those of Dembski and Behe, well, they haven't persuaded most Christian biologists that they have any substance.

If you want an informed perspective from Christians who accept evolution, you could check out biologos.org. They have a bunch of articles and a forum with a few atheists but nobody dumping on Christianity.
 
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BobRyan

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As for the arguments that attempt a more scientific approach, like those of Dembski and Behe, well, they haven't persuaded most Christian biologists that they have any substance.
Yet many Christian biologists strongly affirm those arguments.

what is more Romans 1 affirms them as well when it says that even pagans and atheists can see not only ID - but a whole lot more.
The Bible says that not only can Christians see intelligent design - so also can pagans and atheists see it. (though they love to deny it)

Rom 1:
8 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
..
Of course the ID position is a bare minimum that is actually far below what Rom 1 says that all humans can see in nature such that "they are without excuse" - but still it is a step in the right direction. Rom 1 is ID+ not just ID.
=============================
ID is the bare minimum possible for those who accept Romans 1 as being included in the Word of God and to be trusted . It says that even pagans and atheist can see "in the things that have been made" something much more than basic/simple "ID".
 
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2PhiloVoid

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My posts show how "just so statements" are being made by the atheist evolutionists themselves and even they lament their own practices in that regard.

As Patterson noted: "You say that I should at least show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived. I will lay it on the line- there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument.[The reason is that statements about ancestry and descent are not applicable in the fossil record. Is Archaeopteryx the ancestor of all birds? Perhaps yes, perhaps no there is no way of answering the question. It is easy enough to make up stories of how one form gave rise to another, and to find reasons why the stages should be favoured by natural selection. But such stories are not part of science, for there is no way of putting them to the test. So, much as I should like to oblige you by jumping to the defence of gradualism, and fleshing out the transitions between the major types of animals and plants, I find myself a bit short of the intellectual justification necessary for the job “

===============================

Colin Patterson (Senior paleontologist at the British Natural History Museum and author of the Museum’s general text on evolution) in a talk given at the American Museum of Natural History 1981

--------------------- Patterson said -

“Can you tell me anything you know about evolution, any one thing…that is true?

"I tried that question on the geology staff at the Field Museum of Natural history and the only answer I got was silence. I tried it on the members of the Evolutionary Morphology seminar in the University of Chicago, and all I got there was silence for a long time and eventually one person said “I know one thing – it ought not to be taught in high school

"...I'm speaking on two subjects, evolution and creationism, and I believe it's true to say that I know nothing whatever about either...One of the reasons I started taking this anti-evolutionary view, well, let's call it non-evolutionary , was last year I had a sudden realization.

"For over twenty years I had thought that I was working on evolution in some way. One morning I woke up, and something had happened in the night, and it struck me that I had been working on this stuff for twenty years, and there was not one thing I knew about it. "That was quite a shock that one could be misled for so long...

"It does seem that the level of knowledge about evolution is remarkably shallow. We know it ought not to be taught in high school, and perhaps that's all we know about it...

"about eighteen months ago...I woke up and I realized that all my life I had been duped into taking evolution as revealed truth in some way."

The question should have been "Can you tell me anything about obvious evidences in nature that show that a 6-Day Creation is absolutely true"? That would be a truly great question!

I'm pretty sure the Earth and everything else is really, really, really old and has changed through time, organic populations especially. As it is though, I couldn't care less either way. If Jesus died for our sins and rose again, then that's that. We don't have to gripe over who's got the science in the bag. Besides, I'm pretty sure most of my fellow Christians who are 6 day creationists aren't going to want to read any of the books I have anyway. So why tussle over it?
 
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BobRyan

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The question should have been "Can you tell me anything about obvious evidences in nature that show that a 6-Day Creation is absolutely true"?
Seriously - is that the logical alternative to "evolutionism is so sketchy it should not be taught in high school"??

"I tried that question on the geology staff at the Field Museum of Natural history and the only answer I got was silence. I tried it on the members of the Evolutionary Morphology seminar in the University of Chicago, and all I got there was silence for a long time and eventually one person said “I know one thing – it ought not to be taught in high school

What they do not say is "well since I don't believe in the Bible's six days of creation any ol story evolution comes up with is fine by me".
I'm pretty sure the Earth and everything else is really, really, really old
Likely true. but life on Earth came about in a literal 7 day week according to God's Word.
and has changed through time, organic populations especially.
No doubt mutations exist and are actually observed in nature.

What is not observed - is evolution.

So when you ask about the guesswork in evolutionism for humans to arise they give you something like 20,000 generations or less to get humans from their supposed ancestors.

But in the long running evolution experiment - much simpler organism such as bacteria - far more adaptable body plans than humans, could not "evolve" - though given over 80,000 generations into -- eukaryotes.

So as Patterson said "stories easy enough to tell" -- UNTIL you try and put one to the test.
As it is though, I couldn't care less either way. If Jesus died for our sins and rose again, then that's that.
So then you could care about that detail?

Are you saying that you allow some things in the Bible to be true??
 
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d taylor

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Intelligent design fits perfectly into theistic evolution and also into Biblical creation - in that it only argues that we can see in nature - the evidence of an intelligent designer.

That is the case under "normal" circumstances.

But the illogical case of theistic evolutionists insisting that what God has made gives no indication at all that the maker of all things has intelligence and a purposeful design -- is what call an "distinctively atheist argument" even when made by non-atheists.
-​
I am not speaking to a person who may have no knowledge of God. I am speaking about the people who at least identify as christian and actual believers. Who are so worldly in many creation beliefs, they compromise The Bible true accounts, just so they can be a science club member.
 
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2PhiloVoid

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Seriously - is that the logical alternative to "evolutionism is so sketchy it should not be taught in high school"??

"I tried that question on the geology staff at the Field Museum of Natural history and the only answer I got was silence. I tried it on the members of the Evolutionary Morphology seminar in the University of Chicago, and all I got there was silence for a long time and eventually one person said “I know one thing – it ought not to be taught in high school

What they do not say is "well since I don't believe in the Bible's six days of creation any ol story evolution comes up with is fine by me".
Look, you do realize that I don't mind if you believe in a 6 day creation, right? That's ok with me if you do. What's not ok with me is when fellow Christians attempt to castigate me for going with the evidence I have for evolution.
Likely true. but life on Earth came about in a literal 7 day week according to God's Word.
No, I don't think it did. There are a half dozen or so major, competing views on how to interpret the first few chaptes of Genesis. Let's not pretend that it's all as easy as 1-2-3. We all know it isn't.
No doubt mutations exist and are actually observed in nature.
No doubt.
What is not observed - is evolution.
Of course it isn't. Why would it be?
So when you ask about the guesswork in evolutionism for humans to arise they give you something like 20,000 generations or less to get humans from their supposed ancestors.
It is what it is. But frankly, I wouldn't worry about it. God is still God. Jesus is still Jesus. And God can do whatever it is and however it is He wants or has wanted to. I'm not too concerned about it, really.
But in the long running evolution experiment - much simpler organism such as bacteria - far more adaptable body plans than humans, could not "evolve" - though given over 80,000 generations into -- eukaryotes.
And where are you getting your information?
So as Patterson said "stories easy enough to tell" -- UNTIL you try and put one to the test.
You can't put the past in a test tube and test it. We all know this.
So then you could care about that detail?
Yes, being that I'm a Christian, I do care.
Are you saying that you allow some things in the Bible to be true??

Sure. Why wouldn't I?
 
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Aussie Pete

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Its like saying that looking at a Picasso there is no indication of "intelligence" in design. Only many order of magnitude worse when making that claim about DNA and the systems the translate it, transmit it and "follow the instructions" (including error correction).

Something Picasso never dreamed of in his paintings.

Hence the loss of soooo many Christian students when they get to the University. Their home churches never took the issue seriously. As Dawkins, Provine and Meyers would testify.
If the teaching of evolution causes someone to lose faith, they had nothing real in the first place. If the home churches established people in faith correctly in the first place, there would be fewer who "lose" faith later. The parable of the sower applies here.
 
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BobRyan

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If the teaching of evolution causes someone to lose faith, they had nothing real in the first place.
On the contrary - Jesus said that if someone causes one of the little ones in faith to stumble it would be better for them to have milestone tied around their neck and cast into the sea. History is rife with examples of organized error corrupting young people. The idea that the youth are the ones to blame for this does not go very far.

The idea that a scheme to "prove the bible wrong" would have no effect on teens or young adults - is hard to credit.
If the home churches established people in faith correctly in the first place, there would be fewer who "lose" faith later.
Those students who go to a university are expected to study science and learn what it is teaching. They often do not have time to go do research projects and find out just where they are being lied to ...

here we see that atheist scientists themselves bemoan that state of their own 'story telling'

======================================


Colin Patterson (Senior paleontologist at the British Natural History Museum and author of the Museum’s general text on evolution) in a talk given at the American Museum of Natural History 1981

--------------------- Patterson said -

“Can you tell me anything you know about evolution, any one thing…that is true?

"I tried that question on the geology staff at the Field Museum of Natural history and the only answer I got was silence. I tried it on the members of the Evolutionary Morphology seminar in the University of Chicago, and all I got there was silence for a long time and eventually one person said “I know one thing – it ought not to be taught in high school

"...I'm speaking on two subjects, evolution and creationism, and I believe it's true to say that I know nothing whatever about either...One of the reasons I started taking this anti-evolutionary view, well, let's call it non-evolutionary , was last year I had a sudden realization.

"For over twenty years I had thought that I was working on evolution in some way. One morning I woke up, and something had happened in the night, and it struck me that I had been working on this stuff for twenty years, and there was not one thing I knew about it. "That was quite a shock that one could be misled for so long...

"It does seem that the level of knowledge about evolution is remarkably shallow. We know it ought not to be taught in high school, and perhaps that's all we know about it...

"about eighteen months ago...I woke up and I realized that all my life I had been duped into taking evolution as revealed truth in some way"
 
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Mountainmike

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New Christian here who’s been learning a lot! There’s many other reasons why I believe other than ID. (including the fact that materialism/physicalism is being whooped by really intelligent scientists, even a lot of atheist ones)

I definitely believe in some form microevolution, and I don’t think the Earth is 6000 years old. However I am a bit suspicious about some theories of theistic evolution. However I did see with InspiringPhilosophy (who has REALLY good content) people were saying that the theory he follows regarding theistic evolution could actually STRENGTHEN the fine tuning argument

However when I see any book, Youtube Video, or creationvsevolution thread on a forum/reddit, about intelligent design, it gets utterly FLOODED with atheists smushing Christians in debate.

So is intelligent design basically 100% disproven at this point? Especially when I see people using really compelling arguments using math/physics. Even people saying how intelligent design being debunked made them completely quit being a Christian after 20 years.

I know William Lane Craig got thrashed in a debate about it but I see Stephen Meyer making a surge recently.
Intelligent design is not disproven.
It is simply not proven
- nor is it possible to prove.
The two propositions are chalk and cheese.

Take a very simple non life example.
Gallium arsenide - a semiconductor - is a man made product of intelligent design : theoretically it can exist, but it does not in nature.
However the crystals themselves do not leave any trace of the process that produced them. I cannot prove intelligent design using gallium arsenide despite the fact it is intelligent designed.

Now a middle example.
Look out of your window...
Most of the domestic and farm animals, most of the crops and plants you see, are the product of intelligent design (ie man steering characteristics)Man did not leave a trace in his steering of the evolution. Itelligent design does not leave a trace.

Now take cell development.. and the definition of life as an organism "that is self sustaining and capable of darwinian evolution"
(argue with NASA , harvard etc if you dont agree with that definition, not me)

That cell has an irreducible complexity, it needs a genome, structures to interpret it, structures to create energy and so on.
Nobody has ANY idea WHATSOEVER of the structure of that supposed first cell. Nobody knows what genome it had, except to say the horrendous complexity of RNA and DNA make them a non starter for a simple cell occuring from random chance chemistry.
So the "evolution" of the genome type is completely unknown as well. RNA world is unevidenced, and an admission that man cannot conceive of simpler than horrendously complex.

.
Before that is a complete blank. Until you know what the first cell is made of, nobody can say what the "raw materials" were.
The raw materials of a wooden house, steel frame house, or brick house are different.

Despite all the optimistic noises of materialists the status is
Abiogenesis cannot be observerd naturally, cannot be made to occur, and there is no structure for the first cell or process to it.
On scientific process that rules out all the start points for entering the scientific process with a hypothesis for abiogenesis.
Chemical abiogenesis is not even a valid hypothesis!!! It is pure conjecture. Since no experiment starting with non life ending in life or observing that process is possible.

It gets worse... The simplest known cells in our time are chemical factories of many hundreds or thousands of biochemicals, hundreds of genes. There is no known pathway from the first cell to modern cells either.

So abiognesis and evolution at a cellular level are a COMPLETE BLANK in the pathway to life.
Miller urey is an irrelevance since nobody knows what the first cell is made off.
And the protocell structures proposed now have changed little in the 50 years since they were first proposed.
Science has got nowhere. But nobody dares admit it, because it is a multibillion industry for academia.


There is a lot of smoke in literature. No fire at all. You would think it was a done deal by the way media describes it!
The obsession with it is born of the fact that for atheists it is the only game in town.

It is ironic that the current straw on which materialists hold their hopes are self catalysing polymers. Which answer only one small part of one problem. The irony is that the experimental versions of them are all a product of intelligent design! Teams of PHds who cannot keep the process going!

There is plenty of evidence of consciousness outside the brain. Increasingly science is accepting it. Hundreds of peer reviewed papers on veridical NDE and OBE. The consciousness, soul,. spirit. call it what you will, is therefore not a chemical process. And if so, abiogenesis and evolution cannot explain life. There is the spirit component from elsewhere.

One final point is so called eucharistic miracles, recently life , verified human cardiac tissue appeared in eucharistic wafer - which is not the product of any known process of fraud, several continents, forensic teams involved. So life in that case did not come from evolution.
On that basis actual evidence theistic origion of life wins and darwin is disproven by his own test..

Atheists shouting down christians on intelligent design are a good case of "empty vessels make the most sound"


.
 
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BobRyan

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BobRyan said:

Its like saying that looking at a Picasso there is no indication of "intelligence" in design. Only many order of magnitude worse when making that claim about DNA and the systems that translate it, transmit it and "follow the instructions" (including error correction).

No, it's not like saying that looking at a Picasso gives an "indication" of intelligence.
1. I don't know of you are misstating my comment above because you are not paying attention to details, or if you simply wished I had said "looking at a Picasso gives an indication of intelligence".

What I said is that looking at systems that create, read, translate, and error-correct DNA and claiming to see no sign of intelligence in the complex design of such a system is liking looking at a Picasso or Rembrandt work of art and claiming that you see no indication of intelligence in the creator of that work of art.
That's a flagrantly false analogy, one that's grossly misapplied
less smoke... more fire please. State a fact.
It also ignores the fact that 1) I'm not an atheist, and 2) that I didn't say that there isn't anything that could be seen in a way which may suggest some kind of creationism.
The comment I made was about IT - Intelligent design where Romans 1 says even pagans and atheists see the invisible attributes of God as indicated in nature - when they look at "the things that have been made" by God.

The logic for opposing ID -- also opposes Romans 1 even more so - since the Romans 1 statement goes far above and beyond the much simpler ID statement.
So, get that straight through your head before you bother to make any...
again ... vitriol is not a good way to make a case.
I've about had enough of the Fundamentalist brouhaha. I'm not putting up with it anymore. ... from ANYONE.
State a fact that adds some weight to an opposing argument to what I have said so far.
 
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Job 33:6

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New Christian here who’s been learning a lot! There’s many other reasons why I believe other than ID. (including the fact that materialism/physicalism is being whooped by really intelligent scientists, even a lot of atheist ones)

I definitely believe in some form microevolution, and I don’t think the Earth is 6000 years old. However I am a bit suspicious about some theories of theistic evolution. However I did see with InspiringPhilosophy (who has REALLY good content) people were saying that the theory he follows regarding theistic evolution could actually STRENGTHEN the fine tuning argument

However when I see any book, Youtube Video, or creationvsevolution thread on a forum/reddit, about intelligent design, it gets utterly FLOODED with atheists smushing Christians in debate.

So is intelligent design basically 100% disproven at this point? Especially when I see people using really compelling arguments using math/physics. Even people saying how intelligent design being debunked made them completely quit being a Christian after 20 years.

I know William Lane Craig got thrashed in a debate about it but I see Stephen Meyer making a surge recently.
 
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Diamond7

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it gets utterly FLOODED with atheists smushing Christians in debate.
You got that backwards, atheists do not abide in the truth so they are the ones that get "smushed" in debate. The problem with Theistic Evolution is that they gave us the pandemic, so we need to be very careful with Francis S. Collins. He recently resigned from his job, but I think the Biden administration fired him. Evo Devo has a lot more substance to it. They get rid of the random thinking by looking at the consistence of the laws of physics and the universe. My son is a computer engineer and he tells me random does not exist. Some things are just complicated and we have not figure them out well enough to understand them. As Einstein said: When we understand something we can explain it to our grandmother.
 
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Job 33:6

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New Christian here who’s been learning a lot! There’s many other reasons why I believe other than ID. (including the fact that materialism/physicalism is being whooped by really intelligent scientists, even a lot of atheist ones)

I definitely believe in some form microevolution, and I don’t think the Earth is 6000 years old. However I am a bit suspicious about some theories of theistic evolution. However I did see with InspiringPhilosophy (who has REALLY good content) people were saying that the theory he follows regarding theistic evolution could actually STRENGTHEN the fine tuning argument

However when I see any book, Youtube Video, or creationvsevolution thread on a forum/reddit, about intelligent design, it gets utterly FLOODED with atheists smushing Christians in debate.

So is intelligent design basically 100% disproven at this point? Especially when I see people using really compelling arguments using math/physics. Even people saying how intelligent design being debunked made them completely quit being a Christian after 20 years.

I know William Lane Craig got thrashed in a debate about it but I see Stephen Meyer making a surge recently.
The Bible is not a science textbook:
 
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Laodicean60

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New Christian here who’s been learning a lot! There’s many other reasons why I believe other than ID. (including the fact that materialism/physicalism is being whooped by really intelligent scientists, even a lot of atheist ones)

I definitely believe in some form microevolution, and I don’t think the Earth is 6000 years old. However I am a bit suspicious about some theories of theistic evolution. However I did see with InspiringPhilosophy (who has REALLY good content) people were saying that the theory he follows regarding theistic evolution could actually STRENGTHEN the fine tuning argument

However when I see any book, Youtube Video, or creationvsevolution thread on a forum/reddit, about intelligent design, it gets utterly FLOODED with atheists smushing Christians in debate.

So is intelligent design basically 100% disproven at this point? Especially when I see people using really compelling arguments using math/physics. Even people saying how intelligent design being debunked made them completely quit being a Christian after 20 years.

I know William Lane Craig got thrashed in a debate about it but I see Stephen Meyer making a surge recently.
Dude I remember when I first became a Christian and got on a forum years ago. I started reading nonbeliever posts about evolution and I started studying ID just so I could prove them wrong. Then Christians would argue with Christians about what they believe but at the end of the day, no one truly knows how God created everything. I've always followed science and they have their data. To use these forums for learning scripture is fine but you'll have different interpretations. The only thing you can do is take what we argue about and do your own study and pray earnestly for an answer. Keep studying and God will give you the answer. Peace
 
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