Here in the middle of our God Questions series, there is some timely news from the “Coming Soon” department: two new films highlight some inconvenient truths for those who claim to have the facts on their side and deploy them against the Christian worldview.
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Ben Stein asks the question: what are Darwinists afraid of? Why is the so-called “Intelligent Design” hypothesis such an intolerable suggestion? And why are people losing their jobs if they dare to question Darwinism?
Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) was so upset about this movie that he crashed a screening last month.
The Jesus Tomb Hoax
Last year, The Discovery Channel aired The Lost Tomb of Jesus, a documentary that claimed to have found Jesus’ remains. Now, The Jesus Tomb Hoax not only highlights the embarrassing fact that the whole thing was thoroughly discredited, but goes on to call attention to an important fact: if Jesus did not rise from the dead, being a Christian is worthless.
William Lane Craig’s statement bears repeating:
If the bones of Jesus were to be found, I would cease to be a Christian… Christian faith will not survive in the face of such attacks without, I think, an intellectual component of that faith that says, “Christianity is objectively true; here are the reasons why; and here are the answers to those who challenge it.”
Hey Hugh! I just wanted to point out that many Christian scientists are rallying against the Expelled movie, and the whole Intelligent Design movement. Check out this short but pointed video by Evolutionary Biologist (and Christian) Ken Miller discussing why ID is not science:
Cheers!
Thanks, Darron. I think Dr. Miller’s video misrepresents the case for Intelligent Design (ID) and therefore suffers from the “straw man fallacy” — he made the ID position out to be something that it is not, and having done that, he proceeded to dismantle something that isn’t the ID position at all. Meanwhile, the real case for ID stands untouched by his presentation.
Rather than “fisking” his whole video, I’ll take just one point — that ID is all but absent from peer-reviewed journals. Look at what happened to Richard Sternberg when he dared to publish a paper on intelligent design in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. Look at what happened to Guillermo Gonzalez when an intelligent design advocate applied for tenure. The reason ID is underrepresented in the literature is that a methodological bias exists which precludes anything with metaphysical implications. Good science should not rule out a hypothesis just because of where it might lead.
If Dr. Miller maintains that Christian faith is compatible with evolution, he’s free to make his case. That’s not true for those who find compelling evidence for design.