The American Founders established government with religious liberty for all by separating the State and the Church without separating human reason from divine revelation. They acknowledged an “objective moral order in the world because that world was created by a benevolent and reasonable God.”¹ In the Declaration of Independence, certain truths are declared self-evident by reference to the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” These truths include inalienable rights for all people as endowed by their Creator.

These rationally perceived moral precepts provide a basis of common ground between the State and the Church, so that “each can operate in its proper realm without intruding on the other.”² For example, an atheistic professor who teaches that theft is unacceptable in modern society isn’t accused of “pushing religion” on his students, even though religious doctrines also prohibit theft. Likewise, a church minister who decries a school shooting is not accused of politicking, even though secular government also considers murder a crime.

Separation in Scientific Inquiry

In a similar manner, the separation of Church and State can be upheld in the realm of scientific inquiry by acknowledging the common ground between the scientific evidence of design in nature and the revelation of design through religion. Unity is achieved in the truth of evidence for design, as discovered through scientific observation. Allowing for a religious interpretation of design is possible, though of course not mandatory, because of the rational premise that design and information-rich structures are products of an intelligent mind.

Acknowledging intelligently derived design in the study of nature is in rational agreement with scientific conclusions based on the operations of the laws of nature. Scientific research, including observations and theoretical physics, shows that natural forces, apart from intelligent intervention, consistently act to degrade information-rich designs, and can only achieve on their own limited outcomes of design. Natural designs are consistently limited to repetitious patterns, as seen in crystalline structures, and amorphous arrangements of matter, such as is observed in clouds.

Religious liberty comes under attack when the materialistic or “physicalistic” worldview gains ascendancy. Those who believe that reality is a closed system limited to the physical universe can at best tolerate those who hold religious beliefs in a transcendent God. Any relationship in which one is merely tolerated is hardly satisfactory. By acknowledging the reality of “Nature’s God” and inalienable individual rights endowed by the Creator, true liberty, not just tolerance, is enjoyed by all.

First Amendment Rights

In the academic setting, the concept of academic freedom strives to interpret the freedoms of First Amendment rights within the university setting.

Academic freedom and freedom of expression include but are not limited to the expression of ideas, philosophies, or religious beliefs, however controversial, in classroom or other academic settings.³

When the truth of design in nature is denied and attributed merely to the actions of natural forces, in contradiction to the scientific conclusions of the workings of the laws of nature, academic institutions also end up violating individual freedoms. Ascribing examples of design in nature to “Nature’s God” should be as “self-evident” as the inalienable rights delineated in the Declaration of Independence.

Suppressing the freedoms of scholars who advocate for design did not arise with the advent of the western university. The currently prevailing secularism that relegates design in living systems to undirected materialistic processes stems from the belief that nature is a closed system, perhaps aided by an overconfidence in Darwinian evolution. 

Western universities started primarily with a Christian foundation from which secularism would subsequently emerge. Secularism didn’t produce the moral and ethical foundations the West embraces and enjoys, nor the drive to explore and understand the natural world. This came from a theistic worldview that taught that the Universe was the product of an Intelligent Mind and could be investigated and comprehended. Like removing fat from milk to create a non-fat product, God was removed from our campuses to create a secular product.⁴

Ongoing Discoveries 

However, the functional complexity and rich information content within the cells of life and the limited creative ability of the forces of nature argue for life arising from a transcendent, intelligent source. Ongoing discoveries of the fine-tuning of numerous aspects of the physical universe to allow life on Earth also contribute support to the thesis of an intelligent mind behind the universe. 

Advances in the scientific understanding of biological design and pervasive functional complexity at the molecular and system level are increasingly making inroads within the academy. Acknowledging this common ground of design, understood scientifically and affirmed by religious faiths, will promote academic freedom within the university while maintaining appropriate separation of the secular and religious aspects of society. 

Notes

1. Glenn Ellmers, “Religious Liberty and the Genius of the American Founding,” Imprimis 53, No. 12 (Dec. 2024), p. 7.
2. Ellmers, Imprimis (2024), p. 7.
3. Eric Hedin, Canceled Science: What Some Atheists Don’t Want You to See (Discovery Institute Press: Seattle, 2021), p. 20.
4. Rice Broocks, Change the Campus, Change the World, 40th year edition (Engage Resources, forthcoming).