Last week I came across a part of the following quote in McGrath's The
Dawkins Delusion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/mar/27/religion.schools
William Dembski (one of the leading lights of
the US intelligent-design lobby) put it like this in an email to
Dawkins: "I know that you personally don't believe in God, but I want
to thank you for being such a wonderful foil for theism and for
intelligent design more generally. In fact, I regularly tell my
colleagues that you and your work are one of God's greatest gifts to
the intelligent-design movement. So please, keep at it!"
The gwardian article ends:
The God Delusion, is to be published this
autumn. Dembski and the intelligent-design lobby must already be on
their knees, thanking God.
I found Dembski's comments somewhat disquieting although I could not
put my finger on the exact problem. Upon some reflection the issue
seems to be two fold.
First it seems a bit like the report a while back that CRU was refusing
to share their data with scientists opposed to AGW. Now I am not
taking a position one way or the other on whether or not CRU favoured
pro over anti AGW scientists but if they were it gives the appearance
that CRU did not want the truth to come out one way or the other about
AGW. Somehow this gives the impression of ID being more partisan
rather than dispassionate about their "science". I also acknowledge
that we are probably guilty of the same kind of thing but about
different things that we care passionately about.
Second even from an ID viewpoint Dawkins must be propagating obvious
untruth about Christianity. Since God is a God of truth, I would have
thought that encouraging untruth was not something that Christians
should be encouraging even in a backhanded sort of way.
Comments?
Dave W
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Mon Nov 23 14:05:41 2009