Re: atheism and demarcation: a thought

John W. Burgeson (johnburgeson@juno.com)
Fri, 4 Dec 1998 15:19:07 -0700

Mike had some good thoughts on ID. He concluded by writing: " But I'd be
interested to hear what anyone thinks."

The situation you suggest is, indeed, a problem, but probably not the
main problem with the ID movement (IMHO of course). I think it is
probably containable.

The larger problem, as I see it, is that Phil Johnson's "Theistic
Realism" argument seems valid if your theism is pretty close to mine. Now
that makes a real problem if Mike, a non-believer, and I, a Christian,
try to do science together. We no longer share a common presuppositional
foundation -- that of methodological naturalism. The situation gets even
worse if a Hindu a Buddhist, a Jehovah's Witness, etc. joins the group!
Even worse still when, for instance, Shirley McLaine comes aboard!

That said, I still see merit in the ID ideas, particularly as articulated
by Al Plantinga in recent PERSPECTIVES and ORIGINS AND DESIGN articles.
But it has to be addressed very carefully.

Burgy

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