Posted on 12/22/2004 10:31:50 AM PST by Heartlander
Mohler on MSNBC: Evolution an intellectual pacifier
By Jeff Robinson
Dec 17, 2004
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The theory of evolution has become an intellectual pacifier for the secular left in America, and the desire of a Pennsylvania school system to teach Intelligent Design is a signal that parents are fed up with standard liberal teaching on the origins of humanity, R. Albert Mohler Jr. told viewers of MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," Thursday night.
Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said parents of children who attend America's public schools have become wise to the secular left's agenda in teaching Darwin's theory of evolution as fact.
Mohler appeared on the show along with David Silverman, communications director for American Atheists, Christian music artist Natalie Grant, and Republican strategist Jack Burkman. Commentator Pat Buchanan served as guest host.
"America's parents have more common sense," Mohler said. "The American public has seen through the theories -- that's right, there are multiple theories, there's not just one theory of evolution -- and I think America's parents are waking up and they are not going to rest until the schools do the right thing."
Debate centered on the teaching of human origins in public schools. The topic returned to the news on Dec. 14 when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against a school board in Dover County, Pa., after the board voted in favor of teaching high school students Intelligent Design (ID) alongside the theory of evolution.
ID argues that the complex nature of the universe points to the existence of a supremely intelligent creator. The ACLU, however, claims ID is a Trojan horse for biblical creationism and that teaching it violates the separation of church and state.
Silverman said Darwinian evolution is a theory supported by scientific fact and it alone should be taught in public schools. He dismissed in condescending terms the concept of a supreme intellect that created all things.
"The idea that Darwinistic evolution has happened is fact," Silverman said. "The idea that the universe was created by an invisible magic man in the sky is fiction. It is mythology and it should not be taught. There is no way around it."
Mohler pointed out that ID is not the same thing as creationism and that a majority of Americans want it taught in public schools. Furthermore, Darwinian theory has gained such a foothold in academic circles; one must be an evolutionist to be considered a genuine scientist, Mohler said.
"I believe in creation and the full biblical doctrine of creation," Mohler said. "I am a Christian theologian. But when I am speaking about Intelligent Design as a scientific theory, I do not expect the teacher in the public schools to come out and argue for or against creation.
"But the theory of Intelligent Design comes down to this: in the entire complexity of the universe as we know it -- from something as complex as the human eye to the glory of the sky, all the cosmos, all of the planets and their proportion -- there is more information necessary there than the theory of evolution can explain.
"According to even evolutionary theory, the information has to be there. That theory can't account for how the information gets there ahead of the mutation or the change. The evolutionists are scared to death. They are circling the wagons. They are defining science so that you have to believe in evolution to be a scientist."
Grant, who is also a mother, said most Americans believe in God and do not see evolution as being true. Teachers should present students with both views, she said.
"If my child has to sit in the classroom and be taught [evolution] as an option that is held in the world, why is it that my child cannot also sit in the classroom and be taught about Intelligent Design as a theory, as an option, so that a child can have a balanced education?
"David (Silverman) says it (creationism) is mythology... but the bottom line is that it is a theory that is held by a majority of Americans who believe that there is a God."
Silverman said creationism is nothing more than a myth the religious right is using as a crutch to deal with scientific advancement in the 21st century.
"I must hand it to the right wing here," Silverman said. "This is pure genius. They've got a theory, they've got a mythology -- Christianity or creationism as you call it -- and they've got absolutely no basis in fact. And they've got the 21st century, which is barreling on in with its science and its knowledge and they say, 'Oh my goodness, how are we going to combat that?' So they repackage their old stuff."
But ID is a scientific theory that presents a credible alternative to evolutionary theory, Mohler said. He pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Darwinism is a religious truth claim.
"It (evolution) is just the religion in which there is no God," Mohler said. "Or as others would say there is nothing left for God to do. It is an inherently anti-Christian religion, but it is a religion and that's why they are holding to their dogma so tenaciously. That's why they are so scared to death and paranoid, insecure, about the rise of Intelligent Design. It scares them to death."
People are starting to think about it. There are several evolutionary theories with "Darwinism" being one of them. It's not up to the teachers to pick the one that states that we evolved from a simian creature and that there is no God. Let both sides be seen in a way that students can decide for themselves. Oh wait, our education system doesn't want to do that. I take it all back /sarcasm.
If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motion of atoms in my brain, I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true . . . and hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms.
- C. S. Lewis
The opiate of the people, no doubt.
I thought it especially funny when the eye was mentioned as an example of intelligent design since it has so many flaws.
If it was designed, the designer wasn't all that intelligent.
I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it's been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books in the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has.
Global Warming
Evolution
Homosexuality
Race
My feeling (I know I'm biased) is that the Left has pinned its hopes on these topics. The concept of a "rational discussion" implies the possibility that either side might conceivably come out on top. The Left cannot afford that. So these topics become dogma for the Left and are to be adhered to, rather than "discussed".
Please note: Many real Consrvatives also accept Evolution. I do disgree with them, but I do not mean to imply that "all" supporters of evolution are somehow crypto-communists. That would be grossly unfair. I merely say that Leftists have an additional reason (beyond any scientific basis)to support evolution. For the Left, it's all about pushing atheism.
Incoming!
I think this is exactly what God has done. But this perspective is quite a departure from saying that your ancestor was a slime mold.
Silverman said Darwinian evolution is a theory supported by scientific fact and it alone should be taught in public schools. He dismissed in condescending terms the concept of a supreme intellect that created all things.
"The idea that Darwinistic evolution has happened is fact," Silverman said. "The idea that the universe was created by an invisible magic man in the sky is fiction. It is mythology and it should not be taught. There is no way around it."
Science has only itself to blame for not using agnostic terminology, thereby allowing itself to be hijacked by atheists.
Intelligent design just invents something more complex (a god) to "explain" something less complex (life).
I am not a advocate of intelligent design, but I do not see how this statement follows. How does anyone know how complex God is as opposed to life? Complex compared to what? To whom?
It would be nice if the article could have gotten the location of the controversy correct...the brouhaha is in the Dover School District which is in York County, Pa...there is no Dover County in Pennsylvania. Regardless, I'm all for Dover High School getting all the Intellectual Design it can get, maybe some of it will sift over to the football coaching staff...
IrishBrigade goofed-he meant Intelligent Design, not Intellectual Design...evidence of how a cold virus addles the mind we've all evolved...
Guess I missed the part where we learn that David Silverman speaks for science.
We know there are many things nature ‘alone’ cannot do and there are many things that nature ‘alone’ can do…
ID is posited on the idea that life was created by an intelligence much greater than ours will ever be (thus "irrreducable" by our measure). One must be far superior to the other (in their logic).
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