NABT convention and Huston Smith

Carol Regehr (cregehr@phys.ksu.edu)
Tue, 07 Oct 1997 10:43:18 -0500

I can't find that this has been mentioned before. There was an article
in the October 2, 1997 issue of _Mennonite Weekly Review_, by Ira Rifkin
of Religion News Service, stating that Huston Smith and Alvin Plantinga
have written the National Association of Biology Teachers and asked them
to strike the words "unsupervised" and "impersonal" from their statement
on evolution, as an overstatement. Wayne Carley, exec. dir. of NABT,
said he would present this request to the board at the annual meeting in
Minneapolis which starts Oct. 8. Carley said "They make a rational
argument worthy of consideration. Most people who complain about our
statement just call us communists and atheists."

Smith and Plantinga wrote a letter Sept. 10, 1997, to the NATB saying
that the association's current statement "gives aid and comfort to
extremists in the religious right for whom it provides a legitimate
target. And, because of its logical vulnerability, it lowers Americans'
respect for scientists and their place in our culture."
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In an interview, Smith said the issue of evolution and creationism is
more complex than presented in the teachers' statement.
"It's so off the mark to believe you must choose between evolution and
creationism, as if they are mutually exclusive. There's 'short-term
creationism,' which says the world is 6,000 years old. That's been
called nonsense on stilts, and I agree. But there's also 'long-term
creationism,' which accepts the geological record and evolution of the
species but does not discount the possibility that it was all purposeful
- supervised somehow - by an intelligent force we call God."

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I'm glad to see someone of the stature of Huston Smith getting in on
this, especially considering the reaction of Carley. I searched all over
the Web for references to this story, couldn't find any. All I have is
the MWR article.

Carol Regehr
cregehr@phys.ksu.edu