Re: [asa] CDESIGN PROPONETSISTS

One of the worst things that's happened in the history of the ASA, at least during my ~30 years membership, was Johnson getting smuggled onto the program at that 1990 annual meeting. I was on the program committee & we had 2 good invited speakers, David Livingstone and Duane Priebe. I've never found out who put Johnson on the program & am frankly just as happy not to know because I'd have to tell him/her what a wretched thing it was to do. ASA members at that time were gradually realizing that they had to take evolution seriously & then this incompetent was brought in to tell them that they could go back to sleep. I still don't think we've completely recovered.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Dick Fischer
  To: ASA
  Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 9:36 AM
  Subject: RE: [asa] CDESIGN PROPONETSISTS

  "Pandas" was presented to an ASA conference when it first came out. We got copies in advance. Some of the authors were there and so was Ken Miller. I marked up my copy in advance highlighting discrepancies and flatly unscientific junk. In general, nearly everybody there panned it. Whether they incorporated any of our critical comments in later editions I don't know, I've never looked at a succeeding edition. But ASA members were heavily involved in the project at the inception and throughout. Remember, ID was presented first at an ASA annual convention. At first blush it was generally warmly received. Phil Johnson was some kind of hero in the ASA at that time much as Jimmy Swaggert was to the Charismatics. Lawyers turned science critics should give us a clue right from the start shouldn't it?

  Dick Fischer

  Dick Fischer, Genesis Proclaimed Association

  Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History

  www.genesisproclaimed.org

  -----Original Message-----
  From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Jack
  Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 8:06 AM
  To: asa@calvin.edu
  Subject: [asa] CDESIGN PROPONETSISTS

  I do not know if this is old news or not, but did anyone see Nova last night? It was a short documentary about the Dover trial.

  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/

  It is worth watching if and when they broadcast it again.

  One of the more illuminating and ironic segments regarded the different drafts of Pandas and People. The lawyers for the plaintiff were trying to prove that ID was just a repackaging of what had previously been called creationism. One of the pieces of evidence was text from comparing pre and post Edwards editions of Pandas and People. After the Edwards decision the editors wanted to take "creationism" out of the book. One of the witnesses for the plaintiff found a couple of example where creationism/creator was changed to ID/design, with otherise identical wording. But the most humorous and ironic example was an attempt to remove the word creationist with the words design proponents. But something went wrong in the editing, and the actual wording in the post-Edwards draft was cdesign proponentsists. So, unkowingly, they created a "transitional form", and clear evidence that the authors of Pandas equate ID with creationism.

  I had never heard that little detail before, and thought it was worth mentioning here.

  I think CDESIGN PROPONETSISTS would make a great bumper sticker.

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Received on Wed Nov 14 11:56:40 2007