My optimism that the “Vise Strategy” would eventually supersede the notorious “Wedge Strategy” is finally finding some justification (for the Vise Strategy, go here). It appears that the Vise Strategy is now beginning to get its proper due:
It’s possible for Christians to render unto God and unto Darwin
By David HawpeSunday, January 22, 2006
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KentuckyMy guess is that the recent forum on intelligent design at Broadway Baptist Church did not satisfy William Dembski’s preference for a “vise strategy,” in which the apostates who believe in evolution are hauled before tribunals to answer.
He said last year, “I’m waiting for the day when the hearings are not voluntary but involve subpoenas in which evolutionists are deposed at length on their views. On that happy day, I can assure you they won’t come off looking well.”
Or even looking good, as I assume he meant.
Having been spurned by colleagues at Baylor, who worried about the potential erosion of that university’s hard-earned reputation in scientific research, the demoted and disparaged Dembski is now ensconced at what’s left of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, after the darkness fell. He’s there to teach and to head up a new Center for Science and Theology.
As a recent Courier-Journal story noted, a number of conservative Christians agree with seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. that Dembski is “one of the most skilled philosophers of science in this generation.” And, along with U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., some applaud “his groundbreaking effort to show just how unscientific many modern scientists tend to be.”
Former pastor Ernie Fletcher must agree, since he interrupted the progress of his recent State of the Commonwealth address for a non-sequiturial detour into the merits of teaching intelligent design in public schools
Rev. Chris Caldwell of Broadway Baptist Church set a different example. He sponsored some serious discussion, not in science class but at a public forum including professors of ethics, history, biology and anthropology from the University of Louisville.
OK, OK, Dembski wasn’t there to defend himself, but isn’t it fair to assume that, if invited, he would have shown up with a vise?
What bothers me about intelligent design is that it makes God sound like some kind of celestial cobbler. If that were the case, let’s face it, His work would leave a lot to be desired. That doesn’t square with a God who is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, and beyond our ken.
What bothers me most is that the national conversation about intelligent design gets twisted into a conflict between Christians and non-believers — between “people of faith” (the formulation with which George Bush strokes followers, while neatly slandering opponents) and those who have no faith.
It’s nothing of the sort.
Plenty of Christians embrace evolution as a way that God might have created the heavens and the earth. Others just don’t know. Most people figure only He knows. You can’t tease out a mathematical proof. We’re talking about faith, here, not multiple regression analysis.
The good news (allusion intended) is that those who concede no conflict between evolution and their religious faith are speaking up. On Feb. 12, hundreds of congregations around the country — representing many faith traditions, from Roman Catholic to all manner of Protestant churches — will celebrate “Evolution Sunday.”
If Christian conservatives can wade into the judicial nomination process on their “Justice Sunday,” there’s no reason others, from elsewhere on the Christian spectrum, shouldn’t rally for the compatibility of religion and science.
St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Louisville and New Hope United Church of Christ in Owensboro are listed as congregations participating.
More than 10,000 Christian leaders from around the country have signed a “Clergy Letter,” calling the separation of religious faith and modern science a false dichotomy.
The Vatican has weighed in, in the form of a newspaper piece saying that intelligent design is not science, and that American creationists are causing “confusion between the scientific and philosophical and religious planes.”
So all of you who want to celebrate Darwin’s birthday at church, I give you a blessing, which is also the motto of the Harvard band: illegitimum non carborundum.
David Hawpe’s columns appear Sundays and Wednesdays on the editorial page. His e-mail is dhawpe@courier-journal.com.