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by Richard Akin, founder ASUSA
Outline & audio of lay sermon given on
September 4, 2005

Audio (46 mins., 13.6 MB) can be heard with QuickTime.

A. Roots of "Itelligent Design"

1.Fundamentalist Christianity

a. Definition: Meeting of Conservative Protestants, 1895

• Verbal Inerrancy of Scripture – Plenary/God Chosen Words, Infallible, (translation: King James Version)
• Divinity of Jesus Christ (Jesus, the Christ)
• Trinity (only unforgivable sin, deny the Spirit)
• Virgin Birth
• Substitutionary Atonement
• Physical Resurrection and bodily return of Christ.

b. Creationism: How the Earth & Environs would look   according to the inerrant scripture:

• The inerrant Bible says hares chew cud, bats are birds, insects are 4 legged (Leviticus 11),
• the mustard seed is the smallest seed (Matt 13), and
• a seed must die in order to sprout (I Corinthians 15).

2.Neo-fundie/Dominionist/Reconstructionist

Neo-Fundamentalist is political and aggressive, the Religious Right which mobilized the vote for the presidential election in 2000 and 2004. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, et al  are still or were Pentecostals, Assembly of God, the “emotional” or Charismatic sects. Falwell said no one gets elected in the state of Virginia unless he approves.

Dominionist – take dominion over the Earth, America First, to hasten the return of Jesus.

Reconstructionist – exchange secular documents, laws, social models, and institutional structure for sectarian. I.E. they want to establish a Theocratic government in the US.

a. The Fundamentalist wants:

• To preserve religious integrity.
• Maintain orthodoxy.
• Retain moral purity.
• Be distinguished as “The Virtuous Group” – non-followers are hard-hearted, immoral, untrustworthy, weak willed, misguided, and malevolent (agents or pawns of Satan) = “The Evil Ones”.
• Be involved in the Manichean fight (Dualism) between good and evil.

b. Why they want it: (disclaimer)

• To be assured of a place in Heaven; to avoid going to Hell. And that a life does not end at death.
• They live in Fear, Anger, Un-empowerment, Insecurity, and in a world of “Weltanshung” of Guilt-Sin-Death.
• They have no tolerance for Ambiguity and avoid Uncertainty. (My bumper sticker “Think Love”.)
• They need Cognitive Closure and to feel Special.
• They are Dogmatic, Authoritarian, and Manipulative.

c. How they intend to get it: taken from “The Wedge Strategy”, Discovery Institute, Center for Renewal of Science & Culture, 1996, (the think tank for propagating  what they call “Intelligent Design”:

• Re-establish that man was created in the image of God, the bedrock principle on which civilization was built. Including democracy, human rights, free enterprise, and progress in the arts and science.
• Nothing less than the overthrow of materialism (secularism) and its cultural legacies.
• Establish how new developments in biology, physics, and cognitive science raise serious doubts about scientific materialism (evolution) and have re-opened the case for a broadly theistic understanding of nature.
• Replace scientific materialism (grounded in Darwinism) with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions.
• Encourage and equip believers with new scientific evidences that support the faith.
• To see Design Theory permeate our religious, cultural, moral and political life.
• Influence public opinion polls on issues such as sexuality, abortion, and belief in God.

While this information was taken from the publication of an organization about 70% funded by Howard Ahmanson funding Religious Right and Republican political candidates, The Stewardship Foundation funding evangelical activities, and Maclellan Foundation “committed to the infallibility of Scripture…”, recognize that ID proponents do not usually proclaim biblical literalism and the literature for public consumption also does not. This may be because biblical “Creationism” and “Creation Science” have already been denied a place in public school curriculum. But, the Institute instructs its speakers to stay away from “Creationism” to avoid the question of the existence of God.

d.    What society is when they succeed:

Looks like Christian Rome, Crusades, Inquisition, Catholic/Protestant wars and persecution, Salem Witch Trials, Catholic/Protestant Rioting, Massachusetts & Virginia jailing of non-conformists, Prohibition, Blue Laws, and Faith Based government funding (Pat Robertson’s charity is to get $25M to aid New Orleans).

B.       Science Defined:

Observation,hypothesis, testing, publishing, peer review, third party testing, publishing, peer review, public review, prognostication, testing, Theory, testing. The drive is to prove or disprove the theory.

• Why ID is not science and is not science theory.

Observation, hypothesis, publishing, teaching. The very same methodology followed in the creation of any other myth.

One of Discovery Institute’s scientists, MD Robert Davidson has publicly admitted they have no “content”, thus push the questioning of evolution, driving a wedge between science and religion. They have nothing to offer for proving or disproving. Having failed to introduce any science, they seek to destroy what exists and has functioned very well for millions of trials. All because they don’t like the morals, laws, culture, and political structure generated by naturalistic materialism. Davidson also called the Discovery Institute’s direction a misuse of science and religion, quoting his minister, “Science is about measuring and God is immeasurable”. 

• Why evolution is factual science.

The theory has survived over a hundred years of the rigorous methodology previously outlined. Can or will it change? Of course, that is the nature of science and any other human undertaking because we are not omniscient. As we find better ways of doing or knowing, we adopt and adapt.

C.       Public School Curriculum With ID as science.

All inquiry and response begins with the supposition of the existence of God. Any course dealing with nature and the environment is mired in religious myth propounded by those who protect the faith. Anti-intellectualism runs deep in the ranks of the Fundamentalist. Part of this is carry over from the working life of the average Charismatic. The favorite saying, “He just an educated fool.” And the instruction of wannabe ministers that getting advanced degrees from secular schools endangers your soul.

• Demands on the student:

a. Accept or be ostracized, at minimum.

b. No consideration of alternative reasons or methods.

c. No answers as to why they should conduct themselves ethically or morally other than “God said it”.

d. Limited access to science information. (in Montana, a primary contributor to medical research, happened onto a medical text providing a background on evolution.

e. To a child’s reasoning mind, nothing is so sacred as a fact. The child wants to know how the world operates and what is his place in it – trying to accept what the authorities in his life tell him.

• Demands on the Teacher:

  a. Remember the Scopes trial?

  b. What will you teach – there are some who question science saying that an Intelligent Designer did it?

  c. What will happen in Dover PA if/when teachers refuse to pass on the idea to the student?

  d. How will you reconcile your role from giving children the facts of existence to being a consort to passing on mythology as fact?

• Demands on the Parent:

a. How do you assure that your child is schooled in those subjects which could prepare her for a career in science or medicine?

b. How do you explain that the teachers of facts and knowledge are in error?

c. Can you be comfortable with contributing to the further dumbing down of America?

d. How do you discipline a child to behave and learn in school when the child “feels” something is wrong?

e. Can you explain to the child that ID, if it is to be taught, belongs in a class on religion, not science?

f. Can you explain that when some adults say that teaching the controversy, being  fair, and considering both sides of an argument means: the controversy is between faith and science, not within science, that being fair means allowing a factual argument to be heard, that argument, as in debate, means comparing oranges with oranges and apples with apples.

D.       What Can Be Done.

• Organize local resistance.
• Get a website, publicity.
• Ally with similar groups in other locales.
• Speak to groups, school boards, PTA, teachers.
• Immediately write letters to the editor when any relevant news item is printed.

E.       Difference in resistance approaches:

• Atheist
• Humanist
• Secularist

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