From: Ted Davis (TDavis@messiah.edu)
Date: Fri Oct 10 2003 - 14:40:27 EDT
Please pass this information along to anyone who might be interested. If you wish, I can send electronic copies of posters for the individual lectures. The series as a whole will shortly be advertised on our webpage.
ted
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Christian Perspectives on Origins
A 3-part lecture series at Messiah College sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Biological Sciences. All lectures are free and open to the public.
All lectures will be held in Hostetter Chapel, adjacent to the Murray Library in the heart of the campus.
The lecturers are:
* Paul A. Nelson, philosopher of biology, author of several papers in leading philosophy journals and co-author of the section on "Young Earth Creationism" in Three Views on Creation and Evolution (Zondervan, 1999)
* Alvin Plantinga, John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, one of the world's leading philosophers, author of Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford, 2000) and many other books, and an advocate of "intelligent design"
* Denis O. Lamoureux, assistant professor of science and religion at St. Joseph' s College in the University of Alberta, Canada, author (with Phillip Johnson) of Darwinism Defeated? The Johnson-Lamoureux Debate on Biological Origins (Regent College Publishing, 1999), and an advocate of "evolutionary creation"
PART ONE: Dr. Paul A. Nelson will speak on, Young Earth Creationism is Obviously Wrong ... Right?
Wednesday, October 29, at 7:00 pm
Paul A. Nelson received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Philosophy (1998). He is currently a Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute (Seattle, WA). He has published articles in such journals as Biology & Philosophy, Zygon, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, and Touchstone, and chapters in the anthologies Mere Creation (Intervarsity Press), Signs of Intelligence (Brazos Press), Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics (MIT Press), and Darwinism, Design, and Public Education (Michigan State University Press). His forthcoming monograph, On Common Descent, critically evaluates the theory of common descent, and is being edited for the series Evolutionary Monographs, published by the University of Chicago Press. His research interests include the relationship between development biology and our knowledge of the history of life, the theory of intelligent design, and the bearing of theology on science (and vice versa). He is married t!
o Suzanne Nelson, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University, and has two daughters. Paul enjoys reading, listening to classical and rock music, going to movies, coaching his daughter's ice hockey team, and walking his dog Beau, a golden retriever.
For more information on Dr. Nelson, go here: http://www.arn.org/nelson/pnhome.htm
The view of origins popularly known as "young earth creationism" (YEC) is widely condemned
as unscientific–or "obviously wrong"–and harmful to Christianity. Many of the charges levelled at YEC have merit and should be taken seriously. Other objections, however, are groundless. Dr. Nelson's talk reviews both the strengths and weakness of YEC, and offers some advice about how advocates of YEC can interact fruitfully with the scientific community and especially with other Christians who disagree with them.
Dr. Nelson's talk is made possible by an anonymous donor.
PART TWO: Dr. Alvin Plantinga will speak on, The Self-Defeating Character of Evolutionary Atheism
Wednesday, November 12, at 8:00 pm
Alvin Plantinga is not only one of the top philosophers in the world, but has also been the leading figure in the resurgence of Christian philosophy in the past thirty or forty years. Time magazine referred to him as the "the world's leading Protestant philosopher of God," and identified him as the major person responsible for "God's making a comeback ... in the crisp circles of academic philosophy." He has published several enormously influential books in Metaphysics, Epistemology and Philosophy of Religion, the latest of which is Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford, 2000). Recently, he has turned his attention to the relation between science and religious belief, particularly the relation between the Christian faith and the theory of evolution.
For more information on Prof. Plantinga, go here: http://www.nd.edu/~ndphilo/faculty/apl.htm
In this talk, Professor Plantinga will argue that the belief that human reason arose through a process of unguided evolution (evolutionary naturalism) undercuts any confidence we might have in the reliability of human reason to find out the nature of reality. Since the belief in evolutionary naturalism is based on reason, he argues, it undercuts its own basis of support–it is therefore "self-defeating."
Dr. Plantinga's talk is made possible by the John M. Templeton Foundation.
NOTE: Professor Plantinga will also give another public talk, at 4:00 pm the same day, on "Evolution and Design." In this talk, he will explore the ways in which the theory of evolution is compatible and incompatible with the belief that human beings are designed by God. This will be in Frey Hall, room 110.
PART THREE: Dr. Denis O. Lamoureux will speak on, Beyond the "Evolution vs. Creation" Debate
Monday, February 16, 2004, at 6:30 pm
Prof. Lamoureux, a retired dentist, is a charismatic evangelical Christian who holds PhD degrees in both theology and biology. A former young-earth creationist, he will share his personal voyage in the origins debate.
For more information on Prof. Lamoureux, go here: http://www.ualberta.ca/~dlamoure/
Are there only two positions on origins, evolution or creation? Prof. Lamoureux introduces the audience to professional terminology in the science-religion dialogue, and compares various views on origins–young earth creation, progressive creation, evolutionary creation, deistic evolution, and atheistic evolution.
Dr. Lamoureux's talk is made possible by the Department of Biological Sciences and the John M. Templeton Foundation.
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