Re: Re: [asa] James Kennedy and the YEC line

On 8/23/06, Michael Roberts <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk> wrote:
> I confess to have a working principle, which is based on 35 years of
> experience. That is that YECs, IDs , and right wingers always get their
> facts wrong, hence when James or Janice say anything I assume it's wrong!
> If I then bother to check it out, then I find my assumption is correct.
>
> Cynically
>
> Michael

It is debatable about the historical point but there is someone more
contemporary that got slandered in the process and that is Dr. Francis
Collins. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and avoid
calling people liars but in this case it seems to be more than merely
getting facts wrong. Here's the original blurb for the special:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:oc06Fy8z3LwJ:www.coralridge.org/darwin/+Coral+Ridge+Hitler+Francis-Collins+site:coralridge.org

"This 60 minute special featuring Richard Weikart, author of From
Darwin to Hitler, Lee Strobel, author of The Case for a Creator;
Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution; Phillip Johnson, author
of Darwin on Trial; Michael Behe, author of Darwin's Black Box; Ian
Taylor, author of In the Minds of Men, and Francis Collins, Director
of the Human Genome Project will show why evolution is a bad idea that
should be discarded into the dustbin of history."

Now it is this:

"This 60 minute special featuring Richard Weikart, author of From
Darwin to Hitler, Lee Strobel, author of The Case for a Creator;
Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution; Phillip Johnson, author
of Darwin on Trial; Michael Behe, author of Darwin's Black Box, and
Ian Taylor, author of In the Minds of Men will show why evolution is a
bad idea that should be discarded into the dustbin of history."

It seems that Dr. Collins was interviewed by Coral Ridge to promote
his new book concerning finding common ground between Christianity and
science. It was spliced in to support this without Dr. Collins
knowledge or permission. Dr. Collins is a theistic evolutionist and
has been critical of both YEC and ID. He does hold, however, to both
the moral and cosmological (fine tuning) arguments for the existence
of God. Thus, it was startling to see Dr. Collins as an expert for
this special.

Noted atheist, Dr. PZ Meyers, picked up on this and started being
critical of Dr. Collins for being a hypocrite. Dr. Collins was
contacted by a commenter on the Pharyngula blog via e-mail. Dr.
Collins then started distancing himself from the show. When the ADL
got in touch with Dr. Collins (
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/4877_52.htm ) he said:

"After being contacted by the ADL about his name being used to promote
Kennedy's project, Dr. Collins said he is 'absolutely appalled by what
Coral Ridge Ministries is doing. I had NO knowledge that Coral Ridge
Ministries was planning a TV special on Darwin and Hitler, and I find
the thesis of Dr. Kennedy's program utterly misguided and
inflammatory,' he told ADL."

Coral Ridge's response to ADL (
http://www.coralridge.org/specialdocs/PR_ADL_Darwin.htm) nowhere
mentioned their abuse of Dr. Collins' good name. They just silently
removed his name from their web site. Of course, press releases such
as this http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/22995779.html still have
the original promotion.

I have used Dr. Kennedy's materials for apologetics for a long time
now. It now appears that I will need to do apologies in the common
rather than technical sense. This is SO embarrassing and sets back
evangelizing scientists considerably.

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Received on Wed Aug 23 10:06:08 2006