Re: Special Creation

Just an addendum -- I actually called the RTB web-radio show today and spoke directly to Fuz Rana about this.  He was upfront about the fact that Templeton's data poses a problem for the RTB model as presented in "Who Was Adam."  He said Templeton's latest paper doesn't differ significantly in methodology from his earlier "Out of Africa Again and Again" paper; that Templeton's methodology is the subject of considerable ongoing debate within the relevant scientific speciality and represents part of the larger OOA / multiregional fight; and that a large body of data supports some sort of OOA scenario.  All reasonably fair points, I think, though Templeton's latest run seems to show more robust level of statistical confidence than his earlier work.  He also said it might be possible within his model that there was indeed a limited amount of hybridization resulting from sinful liasons between humans and other hominds.

 

I asked him about the possibility for his model of a genetic connection arising from God using preexisting hominid DNA to fashion Adam.  This was very interesting, probably the most interesting part of the call -- he said an earlier draft of "Who Was Adam" contained something like this as a possibility, but that it was removed by the editors because of concerns that it would be too controversial for the larger Christian community.

 

It was a nice conversation and he seems like a sincere and decent guy.  I guess they put MP3's of their web-radio shows on their website, so I suppose you can download it from there if you want to hear the entire call. <<<<

 

 

There is absolutely no doubt that Fuz is a nice guy. I have debated him on a private list several years ago. I found him to be pleasant and willing to debate. The problem I always had was that he hadn't done much research into the human origins issues, at least at that time.

 

I would mention that the last time my name was mentioned on RTB's radio show, they were talking about the OoA, cause the guy actually mentioned my web page and asked about multiregionalism.  They (either Hugh or Fuz I forget) said that they had tried to show me articles to convince me of OoA but that I wouldn't listen.  I went back and checked all my email with these guys and never, ever found them pointing me to anthro papers. At the time I debated  Fuz, he  hadn't begun his research into human origins, but he held the position he advocated in the book.  I always find it odd when one's opinion doesn't change AFTER one has done research from what it was before.  One either has a person remarkably prescient or someone who won't change. If Fuz were here, I would say this to his face.