Thinking Outside The Box

from the April 01, 2008 eNews issue

"If you separate out the ethical message from religion, what have you got left? You've got a bunch of fairy tales."
- P.Z. Myers, professor of biology at the University of Minnesota

The Enlightenment tried to right the wrongs that had plagued Western Civilization. There indeed had been a major problem of ignorance, of superstition, of tyranny by the leaders of the politically powerful Church. Enlightenment thinkers scooped up ideas from the Age of Reason and ran with them. Reason! Rational thought! Empirical evidence! These were the things that could give man true knowledge! Superstition and ignorance had to go.

While great Age of Reason thinkers like John Locke and Isaac Newton had acknowledged the power and authority of God, the leaders of the Enlightenment began to pull away from the supernatural altogether. Man no longer needed religion to give him Truth, they argued. Man could discern Truth for himself. He could use Reason to answer any questions he had, and by the fruit of Reason, man could decide for himself what was good and what was evil.

Eventually, these anti-supernaturalistic ideas would be codified in a document signed on May Day, 1933. This "Humanist Manifesto" began by affirming:

FIRST: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.
SECOND: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process…

Thus the foundation was laid for P.Z. Myers, professor of biology, to reject religion - and not just religion, but God Himself. Modern Darwinists did not spontaneously form out of a vacuum. They were created by a very deliberate effort by "enlightened" thinkers, especially modern-day humanists, to reject the very idea of a Creator.

Hard as they've tried, however, and as deeply as they've infiltrated Western education, the humanists have not convinced everybody that Science and Creator are oil and water. Plenty of excellent minds still believe that science, with all its empirical evidence, simply acts as a servant to the Designer.

No Intelligence Allowed

"There are people out there who want to keep science in a little box where it can't possibly touch God," says writer and political analyst Ben Stein. Stein is the award-winning actor perhaps most known for being the Clear Eyes spokesman and the man who said, "Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?" However before becoming an actor he was also a lawyer, law professor, and a White House speechwriter. Stein has a new documentary called "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," scheduled to come out in theaters April 18. In this documentary, Stein takes a look at the scientific establishment's hatred of Design theory. Through interviews and real life examples, Stein demonstrates the blatant censorship on US campuses when it comes to theories that challenge the dogma of molecules-to-man evolution. From P.Z. Myers to Richard Dawkins, evolutionists despise Intelligent Design Theory because they see it as just the back door into a church.

"Religion, it's just fantasy, basically," Dr. Peter Atkins, professor of chemistry at Oxford, says in the documentary. "It's particularly empty of any explanatory content and is evil as well."

Yet while the established scientific community might believe Intelligent Design to be another word for "religion" and therefore "evil", a growing number of reasonable, rational scientists are rebelling. They are expressing their concerns with evolutionary theory, despite the serious career damage they can suffer by doing so.

"Long before there were any Christians by name, people were debating the issue of design," says Dr. Paul A. Nelson, a biology professor at Biola University. "It's a question that's as deep as humankind."

It is obvious that Enlightenment thinkers did not find all the answers they were seeking. The Enlightenment created more questions than it answered. Humans, with their fantastic minds, too often have used rational thought to rationalize doing horrendously evil and destructive things. Rejecting God has not saved the world.

Perhaps we should regard religion and science as simply two lenses of the same pair of binoculars - binoculars trying to see Reality more clearly. Science offers physical evidence (those things that humanity can see with its eyes) and religion offers divine revelation (those God that can see with His). According to the Bible, all the evidence is in His favor.

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." -Romans 1:20