Re: [asa] Altruism and ID

Gregory Arago wrote:

> It is insulting to have a physics/oceanographer accusing me of making
> things up. Perhaps greater respect could be expected here than at Panda's Thumb or
> other merely-debate forums on the internet. The dialogue here is rather more
> deserving than resort to character smudges. If I am guilty of misdemeanors
> then I should happily be warned, reprimanded or counseled too.
>

I have not been able to follow this discussion closely. However,
being both a musician and a scientist, I have lived in both
worlds, and, as I started as a musician before I turned to science
(physics), I know that end of it as well.

Watching this exchange while before our eyes, a creationist museum
has opened and hearing 46% of the population believes the earth
is 6000 years old, reminds me of exactly why this is happening.

It is because may lay people who have not invested a significant part
of their life on science feel that we are a band of arrogant pricks
who think so highly of ourselves and can only condescend to the
low and regular people.

Lay people are not stupid. Neither are creationists. Many in fact
are very polite, humble and very committed to the cause of Christ at
a personal level. Of course, there is the "Socrates" types that
really catch our ire, but comparatively, most creationist fit
the former rather than the latter. These type of people are
hardly insulting and arrogant, even if they are quite wrong on
what they believe.

When the people in the pews compare the general demeanor of
such brothers, they look at these things. Christ did not
come to the Jews with a club in his hand, he came as a pauper:
humble and without the trappings of display. He was also
abused by all and doubted.

We are always more tuned to what is wrong with people that we
disagree with, so those of us who have views of TE ought to keep
that in mind when we open our mouth.

Now when lay Christians come to this list and they read us physics
folk writing "duh" and so forth, and I turn back to those days when
I was a musician and think of why I would not ever even think to
do science, I think I understand exactly why lay people don't think
highly of scientists.

We should take some care to consider that this is a diverse list, that
not everybody is a trained and practicing physicist, biologist or
whatever, not everybody is accustomed to debating things the way
mathematicians or physicist might do, and we should take care to watch
our language. As I understand it, one of the reasons all these articles
about how there are no women in science and engineering all comes done
to exactly this point; they don't feel welcome! Do lay people feel welcome
here? If we really want ASA to become an important voice for science and
faith, maybe we should take a good look at the ugliness in ourselves first.

by Grace we proceed,
Wayne

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Received on Fri Jun 15 19:08:19 2007