[Buddha-l] Buddhism, Science, and Intelligent Design

[curt]

Historically Christianity has not actually adhered to a "theory of 
intelligent design". Rather, during its formative years it developed a 
theory of creation "ex nihilo". Prior to that Pagans had generally had 
what amounted to a genuine "theory of intelligent design", which 
completely differs from the theory that the Christians developed. This 
Pagan theory had two principles that the Christians couldn't accept: (1) 
that the "stuff" that the Cosmos is made of was "already there" - ie, 
that the act of creation did not consist of God pulling everything out 
of his arse, but rather consisted of the Demiurge, as he was 
affectionately known, giving form to pre-existing formless "stuff"; and 
(2) the Creator had to follow rules. The Christian doctrine of creation 
"ex nihilo" rejected both of these ideas and proposed instead that (3) 
Before the creation there was ONLY God, and (4) God can do anything He 
wants to without constraint.

For Christians to genuinely accept a theory of intelligent design they 
would have to reject the book of Genesis and embrace something more 
along the lines of Plato's Timaeus (which was widely accepted back in 
the day as the most popular explanation of where everything came from). 
The Timaeus portrays the Demiurge as a wise and conscientious craftsman, 
who, and this is the most important part, only makes really good stuff. 
Both "intelligence" and "design" imply such things as the pre-existence 
of raw materials and some kinds of constraints on the designer. One 
cannot design without constraints.

- Curt

P.S. An excellent discussion of this can be found in Robert L. Wilken's 
"The Christians As The Romans Saw Them" - which, according to the 
author, is very popular in its Japanese translation because "it provides 
Japanese intellectuals with new arguments against Christianity", which 
was definitely not the author's intent.