Re: Phil Johnson on Focus on the Family
Allan Harvey (aharvey@boulder.nist.gov)
Tue, 27 Apr 1999 12:54:17 -0600
At 01:29 PM 3/27/99 -0800, Arthur V. Chadwick wrote:
>At 12:20 PM 4/27/99 -0600, Allan wrote:
>>On more than one occasion Phil Johnson has lamented the hostility he gets
>>from Christians in academic science. Yet here he is (and not for the
>>first time) on a widely circulated medium slandering the integrity of his
>>brothers and sisters in academia. While I'm not in favor of hostility
>>(though I confess having some within me), one must say that, to a large
>>extent, Johnson brings it upon himself.
>>
>>At 01:29 PM 4/27/99 -0400, Ryan Rasmussen wrote:
>>>Did anyone get a chance to listen to Dr. Phil Johnson on Dr. James
>>>Dobson's Focus on the Family radio show today? They basically trashed
>>>Darwinistic Evolution during the beginning of the show and moved into
>>>trashing Theistic Evolution and anything else that included evolutionary
>>>theory. By the end of the show they were accusing Christians that work
>>>in scientific academia as selling out to naturalism in order to further
>>>their own professional goals. At one point Phil said that the reason
>>>Christian higher education does not take a hard stance against
>>>evolutionary theory is beause the parents of the students that attend
>>>these schools want their kids to go on to ivy league schools and
>>>therefor must be educated in the secular theory of evolution in order
>>>for this to happen. They then went on to congratulate each other on
>>>their recent publications.
>
>Am I missing something here? Did he say something that was not true?
>Since I didn't hear his comments, I cannot respond to the trashing of
>Johnson with anything except questions as to what it was that he said that
>you would challenge. If you can't deal with the problem factually, it
>would probably be best not to engage in character assassination.
What he said (as reported by Ryan Rasmussen, I didn't hear the program
myself) was that Christians in scientific academia are "selling out to
naturalism in order to further their own professional goals"). That (and
similar comments about such people "selling out" and being
"accommodationists" in previous interviews) was what I was referring to
as slandering his brothers and sisters.
Art, I would hope that you would not be in agreement with that
characterization of, for example, the academic Christians in science with
whom you interact on this list (even if you don't agree with their
interpretations of scientific evidence and/or Scripture). If you *do*
think they (we, since I'm peripherally in that category) are so devoid of
integrity, I at least commend you for keeping your postings on this list
focused on the science rather than attacking our characters.