This question is often asked, and the answer is simple. Scientists are people who do science. By definition, any scientist, regardless of philosophical perspective on origins, can do good science. But "doing science" means that experiments are conceived, executed with rigor, and the results published in peer reviewed journals. If individuals claim to be scientists, this is what they ought to be doing.

Leonard Brand, an example of such a scientist, has recently published a book entitled "Faith, Reason, and Earth History: A paradigm of earth and biological origins by intelligent design" (Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs MI 49104). In this book, Dr. Brand lays the ground rules of a philosophical system he refers to as Interventionism. Simply stated, Interventionism means God can and does occasionally exercise Himself in extraordinary ways in His Creation. But generally, the rules and laws of science as we understand them do apply, and we can use our understanding of these rules to study causal-effect relationships in nature in the same way that advocates of Naturalism (a philosophy that excludes God from science) can.

It is only when we are considering those areas of inquiry that are not subject to direct empirical investigation, such as the origin and geological history of earth, that the kinds of science done by Interventionists and Naturalists become distinct. Now the Interventionist can claim the advantage, having a source of information in Revelation not available to the Naturalist.

An interventionist can think of testable explanations not likely to be considered by a naturalist, can do experiments to test these ideas, and can publish the results in peer reviewed literature. This is true Creationist scientific research.

______________________________________________________ Ó 2010 Arthur V. Chadwick, Ph.D.