Has anyone the email addresses of Phillip Johnson?
In the recent Newsletter of the ASA & CSCA
History/Philosophy of Science Commission, Autumn 2000,
a short Johnson-Ted Davis dialog appeared. I found it
fascinating.
I wish to comment only on the term "Methodological Atheism,"
which both Johnson and Davis appear to think is of recent
appearance. I first ran across the term in a slim (popular)
volume by Otto Strunk, published in 1968. My notes include
the following (inexact) quotation from that book:
"Several hundred years B.C. the Epicureans taught that science
must accept two fundamental principles. First -- it shall take
account of all the evidences available. Second -- it should not
explain perplexing phenomena by referring to the possible
intervention of the gods...this Greek philosophy of science was
the beginning of ...methodological atheism...scientific
systems do not permit room for God as an explanatory factor.
(Exact wording of quotation may not be exact)
Otto Strunk, The Choice Called Atheism, Abington Press, 1968.
Burgy
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