Does evolution reveal a world without intelligent design? A philosophical reflection on the atheistic reading of darwinism

Abstract

According to the atheistic reading of Darwinism, Evolution reveals a world without design and challenges the belief in the Divine Origin and supernatural causes. But it is only by relying on „Ontological Naturalism‟ as a philosophical worldview that one can offer such an atheistic version of Evolution. In this paper, I show by a critical approach that the naturalists‟ reading of Evolution has severe faults and shortcomings due to ontological, epistemological and methodological problems. Therefore, by relying on the atheistic reading of Darwinism, one cannot reject the Intelligent Design of the world and prove the needlessness of creatures from supernatural causes. Research findings show that ontologically, evolutionary naturalists, based on material reductionism, ignore a large part of world phenomena-supernatural identities. Epistemologically, the fact that they consider the theory of evolution to be in conflict with belief in God and supernatural causes is indicative of a „personal ideological decision‟ rather than a „neutral scientific position‟. But methodologically, the natural sciences and „scientific method‟ cannot negatively or positively judge the existence or non-existence of God; because the issue of proving or denying the supernatural goes beyond the expertise of the experiential scientists and their scientific means and methods. Based on these basic deficiencies, ultimately, the naturalists‟ reading of evolution cannot prove that the world is without intelligent design. © 2021, Ecozone, OAIMDD. All rights reserved.