Re: ASA News Releases

Bill Hamilton (hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com)
Thu, 4 Sep 1997 13:30:10 -0400

At 10:11 AM -0600 9/4/97, Terry M. Gray wrote:

>As far as I'm aware the only stance that
>the ASA takes is that we would if we accept evolution, which some but not
>all do, we believe that it is a God-guided process. But even there, the
>God-guided process may look to the scientific observer no different from a
>purposeless, unguided process. This is where my disagreement with Behe and
>Johnson come in--and where your news release supports them. They seem to
>deny that God-guided evolution might look just like purposeless, unguided
>evolution to the scientific observer and that there are serious flaws in
>evolutionary theory.

Earlier versions of the material inside the back cover of PSCF used to
explicitly state that ASA doesn't take a position on evolution (and other
issues Christians disagree on). I see ASA as one of the very few forums in
which Christians can debate evolution and (mostly) do so in an atmosphere
of Christian love. I agree with Terry that the release is too supportive
of Phil Johnson and the ID advocates.

It seems to me that the best message we can give the community is that
there are alternatives to the current creationist/evolutionist
polarization. Christians who are not scientists but suspect young-earth
creationism is a digression from the mission of the Church need to know
that not all Christians are young-earth creationists. Agnostics need to
know that Christianity is about Jesus Christ, not the age of the earth.
Young earth creationists need to know that it's possible to be an orthodox
Christian without subscribing to the YEC view of Genesis. Perhaps the best
press release would reflect this.

Bill Hamilton
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
William E. Hamilton, Jr, Ph.D. | Staff Research Engineer
Chassis and Vehicle Systems | General Motors R&D Center | Warren, MI
William_E._Hamilton@notes.gmr.com
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