Quote from Teleologist:
What would happen if the creationists began to embrace the criticâs watered-down definition of creationism? One may attempt to define âCreationistâ as anyone who believes Life was âcreatedâ rather than emerging from non-intelligent forces. If one waters down the definition in this way, they end up ensnaring various theistic evolutionists and proponents of directed panspermy (such as Francis Crick) in the category of âCreationist.â
Yet imagine the Institute for Creation Research put out a pamphlet stating, âCreationist Francis Crick (who helped discover the Double Helix nature of DNA) was so incredulous of abiogenesis that he proposed the first life forms were designed and deposited on this planet.â I think it obvious those previously proposing the watered down definition would now accuse the ICR of misrepresenting Crick as a creationist, indicating that they really donât take their watered down definition seriously. Clearly, if the definition of âCreationistâ can include a proponent of Darwinian evolution, then the definition adds smoke, not light, to the debate.
Letâs expand on this. Letâs say Answers In Genesis writes an article crediting Creationists for discovering the double helix and sequencing the human genome. Upon reading, we find that the creationists are Francis Crick and Francis Collins. How do you think the critics would respond? It would be interesting to then watch them come up with a tailor-made definition that works to exclude Crick, Collins, Miller and others from the creationist label, yet include people like Behe. Iâm sure it could be done; but it would also be blatantly obvious that they were painting targets around arrows.
The ID thesis is very close in the neighborhood to such things as Crick and Orgel's hypothesis of Directed Panspermia and also SETI.
There is one intelligent designer that everyone accepts and that is man. Of course, we can confirm the existence of this designer and can, in most cases, determine how he designs and manufactures things. There are many objects on our world that we identify as "man-made" because we see them being made or because they are made of things such as steel that only man makes. We don't normally bother asking whether nature (excluding man) could make similar things. Man-made is the simple explanation; nature-made is a far less likely explanation.
SETI is a search for man-made-like objects found in places where man could never have made them. An example of such an object is a narrowband radio signal like those generated by man's radio transmitters but coming from another planet. So far as I know, the serious SETI people are not attempting to detect a god or some alien creature wildly different from man.
The ID approach is much like searching for man-made objects found in places where man could never had made them. But instead of radio technology, we're looking for traces of advanced biotechnology/nanotechnology.
On the other hand, the ID approach cannot distinguish between a natural and a supernatural designer (i.e., in what way would a cell designed by a natural designer look different from a cell designed by a supernatural designer?).