"Intelligent Design," despite it's growing popularity, seems too mechanistic a term to describe the marvels of the universe. It conjures up images of God as a lab coated scientist in the sky, whipping up a formula for live in a heavenly test tube, or a cosmic engineer, laying out a blueprint and then manufacturing the universe.
A better alternative by far is found in Old Testament; in the image of God as a gardener found in Genesis two: "Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed."
A gardener prepares the enviroment for the garden--clearing a space, tilling the soil, planting seed, then watering, weeding, pruning and caring for the garden. There's a sense of intimacy is God as gardener that is missing from the unknown "designer" of ID.
A garden is a living thing that a gardener nurtures and allows to grow, not a machine that the gardener assembled and set in motion. The universe as a garden allows room for natural growth and development, while leaving space for a creator God, who provides the enviroment for life to flourish.
One last thing. The God that creationist adore and strict Darwinist (those who argue that evolutions explains away God) abhor, is too small. In fact, The most disturbing part of the recent NY Times story on the support for teaching creationism was this paragraph:
The poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."
That anyone of us can make claims of what life was like at beginning of time is arrogant; to say that things have never changed is both scientifically and theologically naive. God, and the universe God made, is much bigger than any of us can imagine, whether we are scientists or creationists.
A better alternative by far is found in Old Testament; in the image of God as a gardener found in Genesis two: "Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed."
A gardener prepares the enviroment for the garden--clearing a space, tilling the soil, planting seed, then watering, weeding, pruning and caring for the garden. There's a sense of intimacy is God as gardener that is missing from the unknown "designer" of ID.
A garden is a living thing that a gardener nurtures and allows to grow, not a machine that the gardener assembled and set in motion. The universe as a garden allows room for natural growth and development, while leaving space for a creator God, who provides the enviroment for life to flourish.
One last thing. The God that creationist adore and strict Darwinist (those who argue that evolutions explains away God) abhor, is too small. In fact, The most disturbing part of the recent NY Times story on the support for teaching creationism was this paragraph:
The poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."
That anyone of us can make claims of what life was like at beginning of time is arrogant; to say that things have never changed is both scientifically and theologically naive. God, and the universe God made, is much bigger than any of us can imagine, whether we are scientists or creationists.
posted by Bob at
7:36 AM
