Here’s what my professor called “design
arguments’ fatal weakness.”
Welcome to Critical Thinking Scan, where we
look at how you can think about any faith-challenging
message and arrive at a biblical, logical
conclusion yourself.
I’m Patricia Engler and today, I thought
I’d share what one of my fourth-year biology
professors called “the Achilles’ heel
of creation and intelligent design.”
If you don’t know the legend of Achilles,
he’s a hero from Greek mythology.
The story goes that Achilles’ mom dipped
him in the river Styx to make him almost entirely
invincible, except for the heel that she held him by.
And it was an arrow to that heel which supposedly
ended Achilles life.
So, my professor was saying that just like
Achilles had that fatal weak spot, the idea
that life was intelligently created also has
a fatal weakness, which I’ll read you from
my classroom notes:
“How could well adapted organisms remain
well adapted through long periods of environmental
change, like the ice age?
If life was created for fixed roles in unchanging
environments, how can unchanging design deal
with those changing environments over long
periods of time?”
In other words, he was saying, “Creationists
believe that a Creator designed creatures
to thrive in specific environments, but we
know that environments change over time,
for instance, during an ice age.
But if a creature’s design doesn’t evolve
along with the environment, then the creature
is no longer suited for survival there and
is then no longer well-designed for that environment.
So, either the Designer didn’t know the
environment would change that much, or He
didn’t account for that change, and neither
of those options is compatible with the idea
of a competent, all-knowing Creator.
Therefore, there is no such Creator.”
That, according to my professor, is the Achilles
heel of design arguments.
And let me just say, I really like and respect
this professor, who was witty, intelligent
and one of the most interesting lecturers I’d ever had.
So, I don’t think any worse of this professor,
but I do want to respond to the argument,
because it directly challenges a biblical worldview.
And we know that on some level, messages 
that contradict the Bible must fall apart.
To break this message down, let’s focus
on Check #6 of the 7 Checks of Critical Thinking,
which is check for interpretations, and that
involves separating fact from assumption.
In this case, let’s ask what assumptions
are required for this Achille’s heel argument.
And when you think about it, you can see that
there are 3 main assumptions going on here:
#1, the argument assumes that earth is millions
of years old, allowing for long periods of
drastic environmental changes.
Now creationists do recognize the global flood
and resulting ice age as examples of massive
environmental changes in earth’s history,
but don’t believe such changes have been
normal for millions of years.
2nd, the argument is assuming that deaths due 
to environmental change are part of God’s design,
but the Bible says death resulted
from sin corrupting God’s original design.
That doesn’t make Him less all-knowing or competent.
In fact, God gave creatures genetic variation
which helps them survive in changing environments
in our fallen world.
And that brings up the 3rd and most important
assumption: this argument is assuming that
creationists believe in the fixity of species;
in other words, God created all species the
way we see them now—lions and tigers and
housecats—and species do not change over time.
Now it’s true that biblical creationists
don’t believe one kind of creature changes
into another, because Genesis says God created
creatures to reproduce according to their
kinds, which observational science confirms.
But it’s not true that most biblical creationists
believe organisms never change, because, like
you can learn in the resources linked to this
video, we do observe that mechanisms like
mutation, natural selection and other processes
can lead to different species diverging within
a created kind, like the lions, tigers and
housecats resulting from the genetic variation
that God originally created within the cat kind.
Like you also can learn from the linked resources,
these mechanisms can’t produce the types
of changes required to turn one kind into
another kind.
But the genetic variation God created in those
kinds, allowing species to adapt to constantly
changing environments in our fallen world,
affirms He IS all-knowing and competent as
our Creator, and so, this isn’t an Achilles
heel after all.
For more on how to think critically about
any faith-challenging message, you can access
my other CT Scan videos packed with tactics,
tips and tools that helped me as a Christian
student at secular university.
Thank you for watching!
Hey – It’s Patricia.
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