I responded with the following article, which ran as a "Pulse" column
earlier this week. People here seemed to think it was pretty good, except
for one Unitarian minister who promised to write a rebuttal!
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HERALD02.TXT
FROM: John Burgeson, 73531,1501
TO: Letters to the Herald, INTERNET:wgr@durangoherald.com
DATE: 10/7/1999 1:11 PM
Submission from:
John W. Burgeson
6731 CR 203
Durango, CO 81301
382-2508
Editor:
This concerns the article bashing "creationists" by Dr. Garth Buchanan
printed in the October 3, 1999 Herald.
Dr. Buchanan makes some good points, but has left out other
points of equal, perhaps greater, interest.
The position taken by Dr. Phillip Johnson, in his book REASON IN
THE BALANCE, defended by the biochemist Dr. Michael Behe
in his book DARWIN'S BLACK BOX, and attacked by
Dr. Buchanan, have been defended in several scholarly conferences.
I was privileged to attend one of these,
sponsored by the University of Texas Philosophy
Department, in Austin, Texas, in February 20-23, 1997. At these sessions,
both opponents and supporters of the "intelligent design"
position presented papers and debated, as gentlemen, the issues.
Nearly all of the papers presented at this conference are still available
at this time on the University of Texas web site. Most of them are in
a form easily understandable to the average educated adult. The web site
address is:
www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/philosophy/faculty/koons/ntse/ntse.html
The second point glossed over by Dr. Buchanan's article is the religious
issue. Evolution as science is simply the best science we have at this
time
to describe how we, human beings, originated. Evolution as philosophy
(accidentalism)
is simply one of many religious (or ir-religious, if you prefer) views
of how we, human beings, originated. Many theists, Christian and
otherwise, have no
quarrel at all with the first of these. But the gut issue, for a theist,
must be "accidentalism vs purpose." And that is philosophy, not science.
I happen to be a Christian, and one who thinks Johnson and Behe are
on the wrong track scientifically -- to that extent I agree with
Buchanan's
article. But they are on the correct track philosophically; even some
non-theists agree with this.
There is an organization of scientists who wrestle with these issues
on a continuing basis. Some accept some of the Johnson/Behe position;
most of us do not. The organization is the ASA,
The American Scientific Affiliation, now in its 54th year of existence.
The ASA web site is at
http://asa.calvin.edu/index.html
and offers a wealth of material, of several differing views, on origins
questions.
Finally, one of the finest set of materials on the origins issue
has been written by two of my ASA colleagues, Drs. Loren and Deborah
Haarsma.
Loren Haarsma is a professor of Physics at Calvin College in Grand
Rapids, Michigan; his wife, Deborah, is a professor of Astronomy at the
same
institution. Their material is also available on the web, at
www.calvin.edu/~lhaarsma/greentree.html
The point of all this? The issues joined here are complex ones, and
there are not simple solutions. Those who care about
the issues, and are willing to study them, can start with the sources
above; they will
lead to other sources, and, hopefully, more insight.
John Burgeson, MS Physics, Florida State University, was a
physicist with the Navy,
and then followed a number of career paths within the IBM Corporation
in computer engineering, product planning and market research.
His most recent position was that of a computer consultant for CDI
Corporation
in Austin, Texas. Following retirement, he moved to Durango three years
ago.
He is active in the American Scientific Affiliation, writing frequently
in their
quarterly journal, PERSPECTIVES ON SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN FAITH. John is
also a Stephen Minister at the First Presbyterian Church in Durango.
Sincerely,
John Burgeson
-----------------
Burgy
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