Carol,
I serve as the list owner and manager. I do not act as moderator. We have
defined this as a self-moderating group. If this group does not want to
pursue this discussion with George Hammond and then it should stop
responding to his messages--either seriously or tongue-in-cheek. Frankly, I
have found some of the responses somewhat rude and would encourage the
principle of "not answering a fool" if that is your opinion.
While I don't have a lot of sympathy with George Hammond's views as I
currently understand them, I must admit that such ideas are not all that
unusual. Someone referenced the recent issue of Newsweek with the God and
the brain articles. Interesting, but honestly, not that different from what
I'm hearing George Hammond say. Is it the work of a "cranks"? I guess it
depends on your definition of "crank". I've seen many bizarre threads on
this list, I've heard what I consider to be bizarre talks at ASA annual
meetings, I've read what I cansider to be bizarre papers in JASA and PSCF,
and I find odd some of the agenda of the Templeton Foundation (as partnered
with ASA). I'm sure that many people find some of the things that I say to
be bizarre. And from those things you might be able to guess what I think
is bizarre.
Such is the nature of the science-faith dialogue. Such is also the nature
of email lists. We don't restrict participation to ASA members. We don't
restrict opinions to those who agree with the ASA Statement of Faith. All
our computers have delete keys. It appears that George Hammond actually
read the instructions to this group and labeled his post (SOC/PSYC) so that
people not interested in that topic could ignore it. The thread is well
labeled and so those not interested in following it are free to ignore it.
So, there is the "list manager's" libertarian view. If any of the ASA
bigwigs want to state an alternative "official" position to the contrary,
let them speak.
TG
>Who is actually the moderator or list-serve owner or whatever it's
>called of this group? There *are* ways to filter cranks.
>
>Carol Regehr
>--
>cregehr@phys.ksu.edu
_________________
Terry M. Gray, Ph.D., Computer Support Scientist
Chemistry Department, Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado 80523
grayt@lamar.colostate.edu http://www.chm.colostate.edu/~grayt/
phone: 970-491-7003 fax: 970-491-1801
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat May 12 2001 - 13:12:43 EDT