ASAN9412.TXT Excerpts from the ASA Newsletter, Nov/Dec 1994 Posted to CIS by permission of the ASA by John W. Burgeson I. New books reviewed: 1. Roy Clouser; THE MYTH OF RELIGIOUS NEUTRALITY. 2. Russell Maatman; THE IMPACT OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY. 3. Buell & Hearne; DARWINISM: SCIENCE OR PHILOSOPHY 4. Walter ReMine; THE BIOTIC MESSAGE. 5. Richard Bube; ONE WHOLE LIFE. II. Other 6. A report on the 1994 ASA annual meeting. 7. Notice of the 1995 ASA annual meeting. 8. A report on a Stanford debate. 9. A Forest Mims quip in NATURE. 1. THE MYTH OF RELIGIOUS NEUTRALITY, 384 PAGES, $18.95 + $3.00 S&H, University of Notre Dame Press, Box 635, South Bend, IN 46624. Discusses the relationships between religion, philosophy and science, reviews the more popular ideas of how religious belief and theories are thought to relate, and clarifies how religious belief exercises its influence over theories. Clouser also takes on the question: How should theories differ if controlled by belief in God?" 2. THE IMPACT OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY, 318 pages, $12.95 + $1.50 S&H, Dordt College Press, 498 4th Avenue NE, Sioux City, IA 51250. Presents an analysis of the foundations of evolutionary theory, outlines the principles by which Christians must carry out scientific activity and uses these principles to examine questions of origins. 3. DARWINISM: SCIENCE OR PHILOSOPHY, 229 pages, no price given, Foundation for Thought and Ethics, Box 830721, Richardson, TX 75083. This is the proceedings of an SMU symposium March 26-28, 1992, entitled "Darwinism: Scientific Inference or Philosophical Preference?" Keynote presentations by Phillip Johnson, Michael Ruse, and Stephen Meyer, with added discussions from Michael Behe, William Dembski, David Wilcox and others. 4. THE BIOTIC MESSAGE: EVOLUTION VERSUS MESSAGE THEORY, 538 pages, $44.95 + $3.00 S&H, St. Paul Science, Box 19600, Saint Paul, MN 55119. The question "Why would a creator have designed life to look like evolution?" is explored. 5. ONE WHOLE LIFE, 530 pages, $25.00, Richard H. Bube, 753 Mayfield Av, Stanford, CA 94305. Dr. Richard Bube, ASA member for many years, oft-time ASA speaker and writer, talks about what it means to be a Christian in science. This is his autobiography. 6. From the St. Paul Star Tribune, July 31, 1994: "About 150 of the nation's scientists who accept both the theories of evolution and creationism are meeting ... Before you say, "That can't be right ... read on." The article describes the ASA as "people who don't always agree on everything, but who are united in their desire to see evolution taught as SCIENCE, not as faith." The 1994 meeting theme was bioethics. 7. The 1995 ASA annual meeting will take place in Montreat, North Carolina, on July 22-25. The theme will be "Internationalizing Science." Third world concerns will be the main focus. 8. A "wild" debate at Stanford entitled "Darwinism: Science or Naturalistic Philosophy" pitted Phillip Johnson against Cornell's William Provine. John Wiester, ASA member, reports that the debate did not languish from overqualification of statements. Provine made it clear that for him, evolution necessarily implies atheism, and that we are determined (no free will). A videotape of the debate is available for $19.95 + $2.00 S&H from the Access Research Network, Box 38069, Colorado Springs, CO 80937. 9. Forrest Mims, the focus of attention when SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN rejected him for the "Amateur Scientist" columnist position because of his beliefs, quipped as follows in NATURE recently after that publication's recommendation to involve "all of Darwin" to defend evolution against California creationists: "...I suggest that Darwin's THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES and JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES be made compulsory reading ... The risk, of course, is that the former may put many students to sleep while the latter, which was Darwin's favorite, is much more lively and better written. Moreover, it contains inspirational passages about Christian principles and an essay ... which reads in part: 'There can be no doubt that this predacious larva belongs to the same genus with the European kind, though to a different species. Now what would the skeptic say to this? Would any two workmen have hit upon so beautiful, so simple, and yet so artificial a contrivance? It cannot be thought so: one Hand has surely worked through the universe.' (Voyage of the Beagle, 325; Penguin 1989). Yes, let "all of Darwin" be used to defend evolution from California creationists. (Nature, Vol 366, 11 Nov, 1993) Forrest has authored a science cartoon booklet which is currently being marketed through Radio Shack. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The American Scientific Affiliation, ASA, founded in 1941, is an association of people who have made a commitment of themselves to both a scientific description of the world and to Christianity. The present membership is about 2,500. Information on the ASA, including a sample issue of PERSPECTIVES, is available by writing to: ASA, P.O. Box 668 Ipswitch, MA 01938-0668 ASA's e-mail address is asa@newl.com