From news writer O’Leary: You can sure tell that “intelligent design” is becoming a familiar concept in popular culture when you read this at HuffPo:
Do you believe in “intelligent design?”
No. Let me clarify that answer. Because intelligent design is exactly what we see. But does that come from some being? I think life itself is intelligent. I don’t think necessarily that a creator had to be involved.
Was there a particular purpose in including “intelligent design” in the episode?
You can’t go on any show and say, “I can say what I believe but I can’t say what is.” I don’t know what is. We want to present both sides of any–because it is all predicated on faith. It is what you believe. And on this show we want to accept all ideas and be inclusive.
So you don’t believe that a “creator” is responsible for life?
Now, you are talking to Morgan Freeman, actor. You are not talking to Morgan Freeman, scientist, or Morgan Freeman, theologian, or any of that, OK? Well, I really don’t think there is an entity involved in the creation of the universe.
Three things jump out here: Freeman’s idea that intelligence is inherent in the universe itself has a long and respectable history, particularly in Eastern philosophy. Not sure I would go so far as to call it pantheism in all cases. An intelligence in nature itself is not necessarily God or even a god. That is a matter of interpretation.
Freeman has noticed the intelligence and is too smart to try to explain it away. I like his caution and his insistence on speaking for himself; it is a good beginning to serious study. But actually, evidence for design is, well, evidence, not mere faith. We leave faith in faith alone to the theistic evolutionists (Darwin’s Christians).
It’s encouraging that he recognizes that the main justification for discussing ID on his new cosmology program is public interest. I hope he doesn’t get railroaded into simply coughing up the Word of the Beard = Darwinist talking points, enforced via threats of boycotts, letter writing campaigns, canned editorials against him …
With Steve Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt listed as a New York Times bestseller, the time to be intimidated by that stuff is past. If you really are a Darwin troll, rant and bawl and try to get stuff suppressed. But increasingly, no one is making you do it except you.