From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Thu Jul 31 2003 - 14:43:08 EDT
I'm not entirely sure that the points of view being advocated
or criticized have necessarily been fully defined. I see at
least four options relating to "natural" versus ID
explanations (with plenty of intergrades):
1. Everything must have a "natural" explanation.
2. "Natural" explanations seem to work pretty well and
provide an adequate proximal explanation of the creation of
organisms.
3. "Natural" explanations do not seem adequate.
4. There must be physical evidence pointing to
non-"natural" events. God is more involved in them than in
natural events.
The first and last are philosophical positions and are major
targets of criticism from the other side. Also, people
holding the second or third views may be accused of the
first or fourth. This is incorrect. For example, I think that it
is theologically likely that the physical acts of creation of
organisms used ordinary means throughout, and I do not
see any physical evidence as disproving that. The popular
ID use of bad counterexamples, such as the mitochondrial
genetic code argument, makes me further dubious about
the merits of purporedly irreducible events. However,
endorsement by Dawkins is likewise detrimental to
credibility for me.
Both 1 and 4 assert that God must have done things a
particular way (if He is involved), whereas 2 and 3 suggest
that He did things a particular way.
Of course, based on a general level of success or failure of
a particular approach, one might reasonably put more
initial credence to an explanation that fits that approach. It
is the a priori ruling out of a possibility that is inherently
philosophical rather than observational (not that we are
perfectly obsevational in other cases, just more so).
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand
Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G.
Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
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