Darwinism, Creationism, Intelligent Design, Evolution, what a mess

I have the past few months been continually looking at these "scientific" issues. I still have yet to come to any firm conclusions other than that God created the heaven and the earth according to scripture. But how does this all work together with science and the natural world where nature seems to be bound by a beautiful system that runs things. Are the modern day evolutionary atheists correct in saying that the natural world can run itself and there is no need for a divine creator, especially the God of the Bible?

I recently saw the movie Expelled which is a documentary by Ben Stein (remember that good old teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off?)examining the reasons that intelligent design is a valid theory and should be taught in our classrooms. I was very disappointed in the film. I am afraid that the movie didn't do a decent enough job of explaining the issue. The film was more propaganda than it was objective reasoning. The Intelligent Design (ID) proponents, for the most part, attacked and ridiculed the atheists and Darwinist which only made the IDers look stupid themselves.

Due to this blog and some great conversations with my girlfriend (who is currently reading Dawkins' The God Delusion), I am being to question whether Christians should be pushing ID. I am being to believe that ID is a weak counter argument to Darwinism because it reduces God into a simple hypothesis that can easily be taken apart by any astute thinker.

My other thought is that observable evolution is the only thing that should be considered if one wants to simply look at the facts and at science only. Intelligent Design, Creationism, and Darwinian Evolution are all dealing with metaphysical ideas that are somewhat apart from scientific inquiry. These three ideas, though one might call them "scientific", are really ideas that belong in the realm of philosophy.

But then again...

Someone I know asked: "How can you separate the natural from the spiritual?"

Good question.

It seems to me the answer to Atheistic Darwinism is not a simple one. I think the task of the Christian to "defend the faith" on this issue is incredibly difficult.

If you want to read more, Check out this review essay