In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Sharon Begley’s Science Journal column (paid subscription required) profiles Professor Richard Colling, a biology professor and devout conservative Christian, at what she describes as a fundamentalist Christian college. Here are some excerpts:
In his new book, "Random Designer," [Professor Colling] writes: "It pains me to suggest that my religious brothers are telling falsehoods" when they say evolutionary theory is "in crisis" and claim that there is widespread skepticism about it among scientists. "Such statements are blatantly untrue," he argues; "evolution has stood the test of time and considerable scrutiny."
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… He finds a place for God in evolution by positing a "random designer" who harnesses the laws of nature he created. "What the designer designed is the random-design process," or Darwinian evolution, Prof. Colling says. "God devised these natural laws, and uses evolution to accomplish his goals." …
… "A God who can harness the laws of randomness and chaos, and create beauty and wonder and all of these marvelous structures, is a lot more creative than fundamentalists give him credit for," he told me. Creating the laws of physics and chemistry that, over the eons, coaxed life from nonliving molecules is something he finds just as awe inspiring as the idea that God instantly and supernaturally created life from nonlife.
Ms. Begley also notes that Professor Colling has little use for the intelligent-design crowd:
… "When Christians insert God into the gaps that science cannot explain — in this case how wondrous structures and forms of life came to be — they set themselves up for failure and even ridicule," he told me. "Soon — and it’s already happening with the flagellum — science is going to come along and explain" how a seemingly miraculous bit of biological engineering in fact could have evolved by Darwinian mechanisms. And that will leave intelligent design backed into an ever-shrinking corner.
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