THE ARGUMENT FROM INTELLIGENT DESIGN - JUST ANOTHER "GOD OF THE GAPS" REASONING?
Some Christian apologists and theologians claim that the order in the universe is evidence of an intelligent designer — which, of course, is their very specific Christian God. But could this reasoning amount to just another 'God of the gaps' argument? I have one reason to think so. Christians, including Jesus, believe(d) that disorder in the world (sickness, for example) is as a result of an intelligent mischief maker — the devil or demons. This is a belief that is fundamental to teachings about the divinity of Jesus and the potency of the Christian faith and therefore is no fringe theory. For example, the Bible tells of Jesus speaking about a woman who had what seems to fit the description of a hunch back as having been bound by Satan for 18 years (Luke 13:16). However, we now know the pathology of most sicknesses. Science has revealed how they work, and it is crystal clear that there is no spiritual input in any pathogenic disease we have studied thus far. There is no ...