Re: [asa] ID, TE, and the culture war--who is the audience?

Quoting Ted Davis <TDavis@messiah.edu>:
>
> Suppose we assume (as I have been assuming) that ID generally takes a more
> confrontational approach to atheism, the "slam dunk" language I've used; and
> that TE is generally less confrontational in responding to atheism, the
> "backdoor layup" as I had called it.
>

Another way to look at this is that while the IDs (if your assumption above
proves accurate) see themselves as taking "the message" out to the sceptics at
large in order to "do battle" on their own turf, the TEs may view their own
mission as more of an attempted in-house clean-up. I.e. let's try to get more
Christians away from bad science and on to better footing so that they don't
contribute to the already rampant conflation of Christianity with bad science.

Both missions, I would argue, are valuable and necessary. How well each
accomplishes it, though, will no doubt tempt parties into the ongoing
destructive (yet maybe sometimes valid) criticism of each other. But I think
this would reflect your assumptions above, Ted.

What about rephrasing the comparison this way: The ID people are attempting a
slam-dunk on the athiests, while the TE's are trying to block the apparent slam
dunk claimed by the atheists. "debunk the slam dunk" In house cleanup is
important to this chore because so much of YECism seems to confirm the atheist
charge that Christianity and science are at war.

--Merv

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Received on Fri Apr 27 15:38:16 2007