Re: The Terms of Debate in Kansas

No, I don't think that this definition is very good.

"Methodological Naturalism
The philosophy of mainstream science that nature has its own method, without the possibility of supernatural influence on, say, how DNA is sequenced. William S. Harris, a chemist who helped write Kansas' alternative science standards questioning evolution, said that methodological naturalism puts blinders on the search for truth."

1st, it seems to anthropomorphize nature.

2d, at least from a Christian standpoint the possibility of supernatural influence (waiving the question of whether or not the nature/supernature split is helpful) is certainly not denied. In the traditional doctrine of providence God ("Supernature") is "influencing" nature all the time but seldom intervenes in the sense of breaking into the ordinary pattern of events described by scientific laws.

3d, even if "influence" is replaced by "intervention," most Christians would not deny the possibility of divine intervention, though views would differ on whether (if at all) this takes place.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Randy Isaac
  To: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 9:20 PM
  Subject: The Terms of Debate in Kansas

  Printed in the NYTimes today: they got some of the definitions right. I hadn't thought of methodological naturalism in this way. Is this how you-all would define it? I had always considered the method in question was that of scientists, not of nature.

  Randy
Received on Sun May 15 22:46:50 2005