Re: [asa] Expelled finale

On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 10:41 AM, David Randall Gabrielse <
r.gabrielse@att.net> wrote:

> At 5/6/2008 10:17 PM, Rich Blinne wrote:
>
> Richard Blinne wrote
> >
> > One of things that frustrates me is hearing my evangelical friends
> > including pastors not seeing how necessary it is to explore just what
> > ID is. Without that it is impossible to judge whether the expulsion is
> > legitimate whether universally or in particular contexts. As long as
> > something is rhetorically convenient I find amongst my evangelical
> > friends it produces such a great amount of incuriosity -- whether it
> > is this question or whether the actions of the producers were ethical
> > or not. I find such a response morally repugnant. The only question
> > they ask are "Have you seen the movie?" over and over and over again.
> > Or, dismissing my scruples as "red herrings".
> >
>
> I share your concerns, with a caveat. Here at Iowa State
> University we had Del Ratzsch out to address ID in the fall of 2004. We
> have had one professor address whether Christians really want to use
> "scientific" standards as an argument for God, and I had the privilege to
> attend Dr. Gonzales' explanation of what his work surrounding the Anthropic
> Principle. If every self-appointed advocate of ID could be as articulate at
> Dr. Gonzales, it would help. But as I pointed out privately to several
> faculty, that is impossible, as ID has become (if it ever was not) a popular
> culture movement.
> That is where my caveat comes in. I find that trying to study what
> ID is, becomes a something of a black hole, or to use a term once used to
> describe historical scholarship as "objective," it is "like nailing jelly to
> a wall." No matter how much one thinks one knows, the explanation will not
> satisfy a significant group somewhere. OTOH, I cannot imagine a great
> number of Christian non-scientists devoting weeks to learning all they might
> about ID.
>

I used Gonzales' materials last year for a class. I really feel sorry for
him. The most scientifically productive ID proponent is an apt moniker for
him. Him being associated with DI destroyed his career IMHO and they bear
much of the blame. I happen to think that much of ID's arguments are bogus.
That being said if an organization like RtB was the face of ID rather than
DI I would be much less vocal. What argument is compelling is often in the
eye of the beholder and life is too short to take it upon ourselves to
correct every error.

What I find particularly distressing -- and what I cannot countenance -- is
how destructive the DI brand of ID is to Christians. Imagine the war being
fought by archers and the ID proponents and the lay people are in the back.
Those of us in the front lines are begging them to hold their fire. But we
need to shoot the evil atheists and materialists they cry and they don't
even have the good sense to aim high. In addition to this they raise the ire
of the civilians (the non-hard-core-atheist secular scientists). The
civilians on our side (evangelical lay people) are cheered on to also shoot
from the back, too. The result: we get shot in back and take more fire in
the front. We scream.

"Please stop. Please stop."
"You cowards"
"Please stop..........."
 No answer. Fade to black.

Case in point Baylor. Walter Bradley is one of the founding fathers of ID
and a distinguished professor of Engineering at Baylor. Our 2007 annual
meeting had him as a speaker and he described how Baylor created a
multi-discipline approach in order to have a program of Christian
sustainable development. Bernard Amadei, founder of Engineers without
Borders, noted in contrast how difficult it was to have a Christian
worldview in a secular university like CU.

The people I mentioned above responded like this. When I mentioned how some
evangelical universities were expelling people -- they didn't get it that it
was for being TE -- they thought of Baylor and how unchristian it was!
Because Walter Bradley is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet I guess
his ID credentials doesn't count. This is what Expelled and
culture-wars-based ID does.

Rich Blinne
Member ASA

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Received on Wed May 7 16:09:15 2008