TE's vs. Naturalism

lhaarsma@OPAL.TUFTS.EDU
Tue, 23 Apr 1996 16:30:06 -0500 (EST)

Chuck Warman ended a recent post thus:

> Where I find many TE's culpable is that you
> don't hold these guys' feet to the fire, in the popular literature, for
> making unwarranted metaphysical claims.

You are in good company. I am painfully aware that this is a very common
perception amongst PC's.

But I don't understand where it comes from. You see, to the best of my
memory, _every_ _single_ "popular" origins-related book or article
written by a TE, that _I_ have read, has taken time to criticize the
unwarranted metaphysical claims of Monod, Dawkins, Gould, Sagan, etc.
Is there a vast quantity of "popular" TE literature of which I am unaware?

To the best of my knowledge, the glowing reviews of Dawkin's etc. books in
trade journals have almost invariably provoked one or more letters to the
editor addressing those unwarranted metaphysical claims.

Perhaps the perception is that TE's are not writing ENOUGH books,
articles, and letters, or that those books don't make the best-seller
lists? I am genuinely curious, why is this perception of TE's so
wide-spread?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Your denial of my victimhood |
is lowering my self-esteem!" | Loren Haarsma
--Calvin (_Calvin_and_Hobbes_) | lhaarsma@opal.tufts.edu