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Answers in Genesis, a young-earth creationist organization, provides an article clarifying their views on Intelligent Design. (HT: Victor Reppert) For those in the scientific community which continue to claim that ID is simply young earth creationism (YEC) in disguise, this article should provide further evidence that this is not the case. Many young earth creationists have repeatedly criticized ID because of its refusal to embrace YEC. It is not clear, however, that those opposed to ID are interested in what is the case, but are more interested in trying to marginalize and discredit ID as religious dogma.

Carl Wieland comments that many of the leaders of the ID movement are not young earth creationists, some not even Christian:

Philosophically and theologically, the leading lights of the ID movement form an eclectic group. For example, Dr Jonathan Wells is not only a scientist but also an ordained cleric in the Unification Church (the ‘Moonie’ sect) and Dr Michael Denton is a former agnostic anti-evolutionist (with respect to biological transformism), who now professes a vague form of theism. However, he now seems to have embraced evolutionary (though somehow ‘guided’) transformism. Dr Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box, is a Roman Catholic who says he has no problem with the idea that all organisms, including man, descended from a common ancestor.

Wieland accurately protrays certain characteristics of intelligent design, such as:
1. The assertion that naturalistic explanations cannot adequately account for the diversity and complexity of life on earth.
2. ID does not start from any particular religious teaching and then attempt to align science with that teaching.

This article goes on to discuss what AIG considers strengths and weaknesses of the ID movement. In my next post, I hope to discuss those perceived weaknesses.