Laughing at Intelligent Design
Luke uses an interesting word to describe the way Christ’s enemies mocked him. It is translated “ridiculed” or “scoffed” (Lk. 16:14; 23:35) and is derived from mukter, meaning “nose.” The idea behind the term is “to hold up the nose in derision at” (Vine's), and it expresses the tone of the hubris often aimed at Christ. Jesus endured His share of this kind of derision; it was with Him everywhere He went.
Peter warned Christians that “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires” (2 Pet. 3:3). His words have been proven true time and time again. Today we see people mocking God everywhere—in political circles, public schools, colleges, science laboratories, museums of history, in music, on television, and on the movie screen.
One movement that has really stirred the pot is the push to have Intelligent Design (ID) taught alongside evolution in public classrooms. Intelligent Design is the theory that life on earth is too complex to be explained by evolutionary processes and implies that a Higher Power must have had a hand in creation. Even though an impressive number of reputable scientists endorse ID, its opponents are waging a smear campaign to try to stop it. Just recently, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History created a hostile work environment for one of their scientists, Richard von Sternberg, because he edited a publication which contained an article laying out evidence for ID. Also, when President Bush suggested earlier this month that ID should be taught in our public schools, he was laughed to scorn.
It is important to note that advocates of ID try to stay away from religion, knowing they must first settle the issue of whether life can be explained by merely natural processes before they get into discussing just who the Designer behind it all is. They focus on two critical questions: “(1) Is science, in principle, able to detect evidence of design in nature?; and (2) Is there, in fact, any such evidence of genuine design in nature (and in the biological world in particular)?” (Trevor Major, "The Intelligent Design Movement [Part 1]," Reason & Revelation). This makes no difference to ID’s opponents. They see where these ideas will lead—beyond this world and into the next—and they don’t want them around America’s young, impressionable minds.
Despite attempts to silence it, ID is nothing to be laughed at. Something must account for the precision of the human eye, the migratory flights of winged creatures, the complexity of DNA, etc. Evolution only offers us happy accidents. For many of us, that explanation just isn’t good enough. As it turns out, the laughter believers are hearing in the face of ID’s propositions is not all that intimidating. It is more akin to the nervous snigger of a child who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
