Re: [asa] An Intelligent Design Riddle

Hi Don,

"In the present book he has some strong words to say about YECs, but I
too have had on occasion some strong words to say about YECs."

Yeah, but likening them to Holocaust deniers crosses the line.

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Nield" <d.nield@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "Murray Hogg" <muzhogg@netspace.net.au>
Cc: "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 9:38 PM
Subject: Re: [asa] An Intelligent Design Riddle

> In reply to the tough ice-hockey player or his namesake, I remark that
> Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth'" is currently ranked #31 among
> books at Amazon.com. . I have browsed through this book in a bookshop
> (I am in no hurry to buy it). It appears to be mainly elementary
> science and on that subject Dawkins writes very well. I found nothing
> objectionable in it -- it is only when Dawkins tries to write about
> Christianity (or religion in general) that he makes a fool of himself.
> In the present book he has some strong words to say about YECs, but I
> too have had on occasion some strong words to say about YECs.
> Don
>
>
> Murray Hogg wrote:
>> Hi Schwarzwald,
>>
>> I don't have a great deal of time to engage with this, but I would
>> offer two observations;
>>
>> First, isn't this merely pushing the question back one step? That is,
>> even IF there is some human like intelligence creating multiple
>> universes, then how does that solve anything? Surely in order to make
>> "sub-universes" they civilization doing so would have to understand
>> very much about THEIR universe. And why, then, would THEIR universe be
>> understandable.
>>
>> So, my first run past the post is to ask whether this position isn't
>> an "evasion" of the question. Analogous to the "answer" to biogenesis
>> offered by theories of panspermia.
>>
>> Second, on the new atheists - I would be very interested to know what
>> the sales figures are for Dawkin's new book "The Greatest Show on
>> Earth". I happen to know a number of atheists who were quite put off
>> by "The God Delusion" and I wonder if the entire enterprise hasn't
>> been similarly coloured by the clear overstatements of the neo-atheist
>> brigade.
>> I suspect that atheism of Dawkin's sort appeals to two audiences:
>> those too young to know better, and ex-fundamentalists who share his
>> epistemology. Anybody who has an ounce of philosophical or theological
>> sophistication, however, will, I think, eschew his absolutist
>> pronouncements.
>>
>> So, yep, I reckon as sort of quasi-religious scientism with a dash of
>> undefined theism will be the preferred option for thinking folk.
>>
>> I'm gone for the day (again!)
>>
>> Blessings,
>> Murray
>>
>
>
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Received on Tue Oct 20 22:52:04 2009