The opponents of evolution are endlessly creative, modifying their arguments to take advantage of new intellectual opportunities. When efforts to introduce "creation science" into biology classrooms stalled in the late 1980s and 1990s, a new generation of creationists downplayed their scriptural inspiration and pointed instead to what they saw as unmistakable signs of "intelligent design" in living organisms. More recently, intelligent design creationists have been forging alliances with some members of the discipline known as the rhetoric of science, which holds that scientific conclusions inevitably emerge from a process of persuasion, giving rise to the odd sight of conservative Christians making common cause with radical deconstructionists. But the fundamental argument of those opposed to naturalism has remained unchanged since theologian William Paley wrote in 1802 of finding a watch lying on a heath. Just as the intricacy and purpose of a watch cannot be explained without positing the existence of a watchmaker, Paley insisted, many aspects of the natural world cannot be explained as the product of naturally occurring mechanisms. Therefore, those parts of the world must have been created by a supernatural being acting with conscious intent.
展开▼
