Intelligent Design Creationism

 
During the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial the question of whether Intelligent Design Creationism was really creationism was a hot issue. Professor Barbara Forrest's testimony put to rest any doubts on that score.

You can read the trial transcript on the TalkOrigins website. In this excerpt she is addressing the various editions of the creationist book that is now called Of Pandas and People.

You'll notice that the word "creation" has an ending, it has an "-is" ending. That is so that the counter will pick up any cognate of that word, creationist or creationism, that both will be counted, and here we're looking for the term "intelligent design" rather than just "design." What this indicates is that you see the same thing in these drafts. In the early drafts you see the use of the term "creationism" and its various cognates. Not very much use at all of the term "intelligent design." In fact, in Creation Biology it's zero times. And then subsequent to the version 1 of Pandas 1987 you see a steep decline in the use of the term "creation" and its various cognates, and you see a very sharp rise in the use of the term "intelligent design" in that second version of Pandas of 1987.

You can see that creationism morphed into Intelligent Design. The biggest shift occurred in 1987 when the US Supreme Court ruled, in Edwards v. Aguillard, that creationism was religious and couldn't be taught in public schools. The replacement of "creationism" with "intelligent design" was a political move designed to make belief in a creator sound less religious.

It's not a surprise that old-school creationism became Intelligent Design Creationism. After all, the same players were involved and 99.99% of those who advocate intelligent design also believe in a creator God. All this is old news to most of you but it bears repeating from time to time.

What's surprising is that there are Intelligent Design Creationists who deny that they are creationists. Usually they try and restrict the term "Creationist" to the Young Earth Creationism of the biblical literalists but the evidence in "Pandas" is conclusive. The Intelligent Design Creationism in Of Pandas and People is clearly derived from creationism.

Here's an example of our most famous Doctor IDiot (Michael Engor) bending over backwards to make a fool of himself in Reviewing Jerry Coyne. He's pushing the claim that there's no connection between "creationism" and "intelligent design."

Dr. Coyne misunderstands the history of this issue. Regardless of whether or not creationism has undergone an “evolutionary” process, ID isn’t on the historical continuum with creationism. Creationism is the opinion that Genesis is more or less literally true as science. Many Christians hold to that view, and they have my respect, but I (and the vast majority of I.D. advocates) disagree.

Intelligent design is the opinion that design is empirically detectable in biology, and that it is the best scientific inference to explain many aspects of biology, especially the genetic code and the complex molecular machinery inside cells. I wasn’t a creationist, ever. I was a Darwinist, for most of my life, until I looked closely at the evidence. Most ID advocates have had similar experiences. Most ID advocates were never creationists, and ID is not creationism nor is it derived from it. In fact, ID has been criticized by the creationist community. ID is an appeal to evidence in the natural world, not an appeal to Biblical revelation.

Hmmm ... "ID is not creationism nor is it derived from it." I guess Michael Engor has never read anything about that little episode in Dover only four years ago.

I believe that Michael Egnor is a creationist. I think he believes in a God who created the universe. I will continue to call him an Intelligent Design Creationist—as opposed to a Young Earth Creationist—unless he's willing to deny the existence of a Creator.¹

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1. Who, coincidentally, just happens to be the intelligent designer as well.