Intelligent Design is a Joke

I’m talking about the political-educational-religious movement sweeping through the USA when I say “Intelligent Design” is a joke. Over the past few years a feud has been brewing between hyper-rationalistic pseudo-scientists and hyper-rationalistic pseudo-christians where each side tries to outdo the other in their rhetoric. It’s unfortunate and downright funny at times. And apparently, Muslims want in on the fun.

I recently saw a video that stirred up a lot in my mind about this issue…but it wasn’t from an American, or even a Christian. This is a muslim apologist for intelligent design. Specifically, he answers a question about how he would systematically convince an atheist that 1) there is a designer and 2) that he is Allah. I would encourage everyone to take 15 minutes to watch the video. This man is really smart and knows his Koran well. You can’t fault him for his raw information recall. But I have issue with the way he takes grand poetic statements about Allah’s sovereignty and crams them into a scientific context to be evaluated by mere mortals.

As a former Christo-american who attended a seminary to “Master the Art of Religion” (if that’s even possible, :-), I myself am amazed how often we take poetic pieces of the Bible and think they were written for a scientific audience. Take this passage in Isaiah that talks about the “circle of the earth” as seen by God. A modern day creation-wacko comes by and says, “AHA!!! This is PROOF that the Bible is reliable because it describes the world as ROUND long before we knew it SCIENTIFICALLY.” Well, no. Actually, it’s a description of the submission of the earth and all that is in it to God’s hand. To say that it’s ultimately a scientific statement is an unbelievable stretch and I am concerned that it ruins the true depth and meaning of that passage.

Kent Hovind and his ilk are masters at this rhetorical chicanery. But this muslim scholar does the same thing on his end. He takes pieces of the Koran and tries to overlay the statements on top of scientific questions and ends up saying, “See! This is why you atheists should believe in Allah!” But it’s just as silly. The most audacious part comes from this direct quote toward the end at time 14:15…

There are more than 1,000 verses in the Koran which speak about science. After every scientific fact you ask the question, “Who could have mentioned that in the Koran?”

Every scientific fact? Okay, I have a high respect for the ability to test, retest and formulate general observations for how the world works. But let’s be honest here and not exalt the puny human grasp of scientific knowledge too much. It’s a BIG world out there. Even Stephen Hawking has been wrong. But all that aside, I’m surprised that this religious scholar would demean his sacred text in this way. To superimpose scientific questions on top of the Koran by using our current understanding of the Universe, as limited and constantly changing as it is, I would think is damning offense to Allah. Bad move, sir.

Likewise to all the proof-texting Intelligent Design people. Bad move.

Enough of my rambling. Check out the video.