Re: [asa] Brownback on evolution

Here is an interesting debate touching on this subject:

http://media.www.columbiaspectator.com/media/storage/paper865/news/2006/11/21/News/Forum.Debates.God.Science-2505679.shtml

David Xia reports,
"Dawkins, a British evolutionary scientist, wrote that the science of
evolution disproves the existence of a god and the abolishment of religion
will effectively do away with violence."

So how is Brownback supposed to discount the entire set of Dawkinsonian
thinkers?

And, one has to ask, if evolution != accident, why do so many scientists
claim it does?
Or perhaps they don't really?

Here's a shocking quote from Hefland (the atheist chair of Columbia's
astronomy department):

"I don't think science can prove anything," said Helfand who described
science as only a method of describing the natural world through models and
not a way of explaining why things are the way they are.

Wow. See if he gets tenure at Iowa State! ;)

Hefland actually seems to agree with what Lisa Randall writes at the end of
her book "Warped Passages" where a colleague of hers (whose name I forget)
tells her that "particles don't really exist, they are just an illusion.
Whats really going on is something else" [paraphrased because I cannot find
my copy]

Hmmm. Astounding statements about science. Given who they are coming from.

My question is what are the implications of all this for the naturalistic
world-view?
Evolutionary patterns can be an accurate description of the history of life
(and I believe they are), but does that mean we know what is going on, what
was going on, and both the proximate causes and the ultimate causes? I
would like to see more details about the these subjects before being told by
anybody that I (or my school board) must embrace naturalism.

On 5/31/07, David Buller <bullerscience@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Brownback seems to say "evolution=accident." With a little more thought
> and research, he would recognize this is yet another false dichotomy. The
> sad part is that Brownback feels forced to reject scienctific finds in order
> to see man as any more than an accident.
>
> Unfortunate.
>
> -David Buller
>

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Received on Sat Jun 2 20:55:27 2007