Nancy Pearcey
Letter to "First Things" (unpublished)
Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:37:12 EST

To the Editor:

Father Oakes misunderstands the structure of Phillip Johnson's argument in
_The Wedge of Truth_, and his tone of mockery is unseemly.  Oakes is
correct in characterizing intelligent design as an update of the design argument:
It uncovers evidence of a Mind in the structure of living things (especially
the DNA code) and the physical universe (anthropic "coincidences").  This is
all in the spirit of Romans 1, which says that certain of God's attributes are
"clearly seen in what was made."

But no one--not Paul in Romans nor Aquinas in his Five Ways nor
intelligent design theorists--supposes that arguments from nature lead directly to the
God of Scripture.  They merely place a lower limit, so to speak, on what
kind of Creator may reasonably be proposed.  That's why Aquinas's arguments all
end with the rather odd phrase, "to which everyone gives the name 'God',"
or "and this we call 'God.'"  He could have concluded, "and therefore the God
of Christianity exists," but he does not.  Aquinas's point is that the human
mind is ordered to its Creator; but he does not assume a continuity from
the God of philosophy to the God of revelation.  Likewise, intelligent design
theorists meticulously note the limits on what may be concluded from
nature: The structure of living things implies an intelligent agent, but it does
not give grounds to identify who that agent is.

Having made the case for a generic intelligent agent, however, one may
then switch categories from science to apologetics, and propose the biblical
God as the best candidate, as Paul did in Acts 17 when he proposed to tell the
Athenians the identity of the "unknown god."  Many have found such
apologetics persuasive.  In _How We Believe_ Michael Shermer, president of
the Skeptics Society, describes a poll asking Americans why they believe
in God.  The number one reason cited was some variation on the design
argument.
Phillip Johnson stands squarely within a long Christian tradition in
identifying the Logos that orders the universe with the Logos of the
gospel.

Sincerely,

Nancy R. Pearcey

--------------------------
Nancy R. Pearcey
Fellow, The Discovery Institute
Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture
phone: 703-492-7837
fax: 703-492-7838
www.discovery.org/crsc
www.arn.org/pearcey/nphome.htm
email: npearcey@aol.com