NEWSLETTER

of the 

American Scientific Affiliation & Canadian Scientific & Christian Affiliation

                    Volume 39 Number 5                                                                                                                                                           SEP/OCT 1997

"Surf's Up!" in Santa Barbara

Warm images of sun and surf come to life in southern California. The 52nd Annual Meeting of the ASA in the seacoast town of Santa Barbara brought over 235 ASAers together for an intense time of wide-ranging discussion, island geology, seafloor viewing, pendulum whirling, listening to Harry Rimmer, shouting philosophy amidst the Santa Barbara Fiesta, and scientific tire-changing.

The Meeting, which some are beginning to more conveniently call the "ASA Conference"-or even "ASA97-was opened by President Kenneth C. Olson. He had become an ASA member and also married his wife, Eunice, while in school at Westmont C., this year's meeting site. Westmont C., located in the hills behind Santa Barbara, is about 60 years old and has 1200 undergraduate students.

Geologist Jeff Greenberg of Wheaton College was program chairman. Jeff did an excellent job of keeping events on schedule and/or improvising solutions to ad hoc technical difficulties. His enthusiasm was apparent. 

Dawn Wright Displays Depths Discoveries

The meeting theme of "Natural History" extended beyond geology to all the things that God has done "out there." Dawn Wright, geosciences professor at Oregon State U. in Corvallis, OR, led the plenary talks on Friday evening (Aug. 1) by describing her studies of the world "below the boat." A young scientist two years out of school, Dawn is a graduate of Wheaton C., with a doctorate from U.C. Santa Barbara. Geology was her favorite subject.

Dawn's talk on "Creation's Testimony in Natural History: Discoveries of Seafloor Exploration" was laced with Scripture, and began appropriately with Psalm 107:23-24: "Those who go down to the sea in ships ... have seen the works of the Lord."

Dawn has gone down not only to the sea but to the seafloor. Her talk was a visual feast of color slides showing deep-sea geological features, such as hydrothermal vents and the life around them. A dominating global feature, the mid-ocean ridge, has fascinated her. This single ridge makes its way around the entire world and is probably the most active geological feature of earth. As Roger Revelle, former director of Scripps Institute in San Diego, said: "... seafloor spreading has caught the imagination of scientists throughout the world."

Seafloor spreading topography is complex. Faults offset the mid-ocean ridge so that it can snake its way around the globe. Hot rock coming up from the earth's mantle, called ridge "segmentation," is not a steady-state process. Different processes occur at different scales. Fissures (cracks) result from stretching of the earth's crust. Hot seawater (> 800 'F), enriched with minerals beneath the seafloor, comes out of these cracks and contacts near-freezing seawater to form hydrothermal vents. Pillars are formed and hydrothermal fluid comes out of them, looking like black smoke.

Strange animals (crabs, bacteria) survive in the two tons per square inch of water pressure near these warm vents. New species continue to be found. Tube worms inhabit vents and grow to 3 feet in length. They are red from hemoglobin. At these dark depths, chemosynthesis replaces photosynthesis. One of the mysteries of this bizarre realm is how tube worms are anchored to the seafloor.

Geological eruption on the seafloor as it is happening has yet to be seen. Oceanographers were able to view an eruption area two weeks afterward. Dead tube worms recovered from the site smelled like cooked meat. The Navy has recently turned over classified hydrophone data to scientists (but not their locations).

The seafloor is hard of ocean research. to map because of the water medium, and acoustic methods are used. Geosat (satellite) data shows major features of the oceans, but it will probably take another 100 years to map the ocean floors at high resolution. Dawn put up another Bible verse: "... to whom much has been given, much is required ..." (Luke 12:48). Just as the ocean is large, so is its study.

In her work, Dawn has mapped portions of the Tonga Trench near Fiji using various kinds of acoustic and video sensors. (Dawn mentioned the "hardship" of having to work in such a tropical paradise, but somebody has to do it!) She discovered a new volcano; it has a caldera with two internal peaks and a break in the rim. It was named after the town of the on-board Tongan official. Seafloor data is integrated by computer and is now stored on CDs instead of drawn maps. Dawn referred the audience to her Website for more: www.dusk.geo.orst.edu


Suppe Extrapolates Future of Sci/Xny

On Saturday, Aug. 2, Princeton geologist John Suppe spoke on "The Future Interface of Science and Christianity." Suppe (pronounced "soupy") addressed the question of where we are headed on a several hundred year time scale. Two hundred years ago, the modern Protestant missionary movement began with William Carey. In that era, the Rosetta stone was discovered (1799) and deciphered in 1822.


Continued on page 3, Suppe Extrapolates


The Executive Director's Corner

Hello again. I hope that you had a wonderful summer. There is much to praise God about in the ASA and I want to spend time doing just that.

Praise God for the meeting at Westmont C. in Santa Barbara, CA. About 235 people registered making this was one of our largest meetings ever. The ASA staff worked wonders as they ironed out both the small and large problems. Praise God for the good plenary speeches, informative papers and symposia, good food, worshipful church service, and for the great Christian fellowship.

At the Saturday banquet, we surprised F. Alton Everest and Roger Voskuyl with engraved plaques to commemorate their long and dedicated service to ASA. Walter Hearn and Kenneth C. Olson presented the plaques to Alton and Roger respectively. We also honored Walter Hearn with a special prayer that God will mightily use his new book, Being a Christian in Science. In the next few months, each ASA member will receive a free copy because of generous grants by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and the Stewardship Foundation.

Praise God for a fantastic field trip to Santa Cruz Island, which included a strenuous, but beautiful, hike and a boat trip into a sea cave. After the walk we had to board a small motor boat to get back to the mother boat, because we were in a small cove without a dock. The dolphins swam beside our boat for a considerable distance and the flying fish showed off their gliding powers. About 95 brave souls made the voyage. To get to the dock, we had to dodge through preparations for the big Festival weekend in Santa Barbara, a most lovely town. 

Praise God for the comprehensive report that we received from ASA's Young Scientists' Task Force through the hard work of Jennifer Wiseman, who collated the individual responses. There is enough meat in the report to keep us going for quite awhile. The Council started working on it at their meeting and they plan to continue working on it at their next meeting. A Communications Commission report from Don Degraaf also had exciting things to work toward. Don's group prods us to move ahead in this important area so critical to ASA's development, both internally and externally. The web site has already brought us many membership enquiries.

Praise God for the generous gifts from ASAers and others to the endowment fund. We matched the entire $10,000 that an anonymous donor offered. The family of the late David Swift designated the ASA endowment fund as one of two repositories for gifts to the Swift Memorial Fund. Many thanks to the family for that gracious gesture. After my initial doubts that we could match the whole amount and still keep the general fund going, I have had my faith strengthened by the generosity and sacrifice of so many affiliation members. Thank you so much.

Praise God for the good progress toward next year's meeting at Churchill C. in Cambridge, England on 2-5 August 1998. Members of Christians in Science (CiS) have made the reservations and are taking care of many details on that side of the Atlantic. Jack Haas and C. J. Berry have a tentative program worked out. Praise God also for the work of David Franz in organizing an eleven-day trip to Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and England (Aug. 5-15, 1998). The trip will emphasize our Christian and science heritages from the British Isles. You will be receiving more information soon about both opportunities. In 1999, we will travel to John Brown U. in Siloam Springs, AR, the Boston area in 2000 (perhaps Gordon C.), and Kansas State U. in Manhattan, KS in 2001.

Praise God for the progress of AISRED in Kenya; Africa. George Kinoti is leaving his job at the U. of Nairobi to become executive director of the AISRED program as it moves to Oloseos-a new, larger area which has more rainfall and much potential. There are buildings and a windmill on site at Oloseos. It will be a development center, which among other things, will offer help to the nomadic tribes of Kenya, such as the Masai, who were asked by the government to settle down and work plots of land. This becomes a great Christian witness as well. George expects to be at the Cambridge meeting to give us a firsthand report.

Praise God for the renewal of the Templeton/ASA Lecture series for 1997-98. There will be 42 lectures given at 21 universities and colleges scattered across the United States. I am hard at work to bring this to fruition. Watch this column for announcements of some of them. We thank the Templeton Foundation for providing this means of communicating about science and faith to the academy and the local citizens.

My wife and I are praising God for a new daughter-in-law, Caryn. The wedding took place in Hershey, PA on Aug. 16. It was a fine day and things went without a hitch. Mark's new father-inlaw, David Martin is the senior pastor of the Hershey Evangelical Free Church and a past ASA member. We hope to get him back in the fold when he recovers from the expense of the wedding. Mark and Caryn will remain in Hershey while Mark finishes his final year of medical school.

Finally, there are some new things at ASA. We now can take MasterCard and VISA. You will see the new spaces for that on your dues notice. On Sept. 1, 1997 the area code for ASA phones will officially change from 508 to 978. Watch for a slight change in PSCF this December. Jack Haas, our journal editor, is busy with a new idea and we hope that you will like it.

We are counting heavily on your faithful giving to continue to see us through the fall months. We really do appreciate all that you do. Most of all we are an organization that wants to see our fellow scientists come to faith and we need to pray for each other that we will be bold in presenting the Gospel. At John Brown U. in 1999, we hope to have a session on evangelism with some concentration on the scientific mind. However, some of your fellow workers cannot and should not wait that long to hear. May God lead each of us to speak out for him.

Don


Suppe Extrapolates, continued from page I

Modern geology began in 1797 with the birth of Charles Lyell and the death of James Hutton. Geological discoveries of the last 200 years include present processes in earth history, past climatic and atmospheric change, the historic sequence of forms of life, and plate tectonics. Much has happened in science since then. But 200 years is not long-only three life expectancies.

Nonlinear events occur, however, as demonstrated by John's double pendulum, to show unpredictability. The metal pendulum was attached to a bench with a vise holding the first segment, constructed of parallel plates held together by shafts on low-friction ball bearings. The forearm of the contraption could swing freely between the plates of the "upper arm."

John gave it a start, and the resulting motion was bizarre, with the forearm unexpectedly doing an occasional series of quick cycles through the open middle of the upper arm. The phenomenon is an instance of chaotic behavior due to nonlinear mechanical equations of motion.

The chaotic obliquity of Mars shows a nearly 50 degree angle from the ecliptic in its past, as computed by Touma & Wisdom at MIT. Turbulence and weather are also chaotic phenomena.

Chaos is a constraint on prediction. So also is the "envelope of possibilities." The double pendulum stays within excursions limited by its length. Basic constraints limit excursions. Predicting chaotic systems involves extrapolation and identification of the envelope of possibilities.

John extrapolated for his field of geology: continued commodity (energy, mineral resources) applications, environmental changes, solar system exploration and microbial geochemistry/biology.

Derek J. de Sola Price (1961) plotted the number of scientific journals with time. It is exponential from 1700 out to 2000. Exponential growth is followed by saturation and then zero growth-or chaotic behavior. For science, the U.S. basic science budget has now reached zero growth. A graph plotting the logarithm of science authors versus the log of energy consumption is linear (1967-1973). Prediction of world oil has been flat since the early 1970s, and we are seeing limits to petroleum resources.

For science, the difficulty of discovery is increasing. John's "mining" view of science posits that a new field is "mined out" in time. For example, the trend of chemical elements discovered from 1750 to 1950 is linear, with growth/decay cycles imposed on it. The effect of no growth in resources suggests, Suppe said, an exponential decline of scientific discoveries.

John elaborated on his larger vision. Basic science is a pulse in history of a few hundred years and we are in a very special time for scientific discovery. This also applies to history, archaeology, and Jewish-Christian theology. John focused on one problem: the 2000-year gap between the theological pulse in time and the later science/history pulse.

John showed statistics on trends in religious belief. The future for Europe appears to be exponential growth in the "non-religious" category, while the rate of growth of Christianity in Asia is exponential on a 200-300 year time scale. Overall, the world population is not growing as quickly as the tremendous growth in Christianity, mainly in the nonWest. We are approaching nearly 500 congregations per unreached people group.

What do we do to reach the "non-religious" group? John returned to the science/Christianity theme and referred to John 3:12: we need to speak the truth about earthly things. What is needed is to sort out the categories of natural vs. supernatural, how God works and how we know these things. John left us with the question: Can orthodox Christianity develop a biblical theology of nature that is basically orthodox science?

Hugh Ross Late-Night

The third and last plenary speaker, on Saturday evening, was former Cal Tech astrophysicist Hugh Ross. Hugh took questions late into the evening on his talk, "Ministries on Natural History As Evidence of Design." The talk was a lecture he gives to college audiences showing the evidences in creation for a Creator, and drawing from his books, such as The Creator and the Cosmos and Creation and Time (both by Navpress), and from Facts & Faith, the newsletter of his ministry, Reasons to Believe.

Astrophysics and cosmology are dynamic fields nowadays, and Hugh stays on the cutting edge of them, interpreting new discoveries from a wider perspective involving God and eternity. The multidimensionality of the universe (beyond the four expanded dimensions) and fine-tuning of cosmological constants are topics Hugh addressed.

Hugh's concordist reconciliation of Scripture and science is a new, more sophisticated approach than past attempts and is aided by his well-polished style of presentation and his obvious command of the science of which he speaks. When questioned about his theological emphasis on God's immanence in the history of creation, Hugh looked to biblical eschatology to maintain a view of God as transcendent.

During questioning, Denis Lamoureux raised concerns about the overall approach of deriving from or attempting to reconcile current scientific theory with Scripture. In particular, he argued that the Genesis account uses the cosmological understanding of the time of its writing in presenting an ancient view of the heavens, with a solid firmament. Lamoureux had given a paper on the literary genre of Genesis 1, applying two of his three doctorates-in theology, biology, and dentistry-to the topic.

More of the content of Hugh's talk can be found in RTB literature written by Hugh. Write or call: Reasons to Believe, P.O. Box 5978, Pasadena, CA 91117; tel. (818) 335-1480.

Hearn Book Debuts at ASA97

Being a Christian in Science was written by Walter Hearn as a counseling resource for Christian graduate students. ASA Executive Director Don Munro introduced its availability and gave Walt some deserved kudos. The 178-page book is an IVP publication.

A prefatory statement before the title page, by Nancy Pearcey, co-author with Charles Thaxton of The Soul of Science, states the clear need for such a book: few churches "give as much encouragement to young people going into scientific fields as to those going into the mission field. This book helps redress the balance." Pearcey considers the book "An introduction to serving God in the study of nature." The book has 16 pages of references, offering ample reading beyond itself. The names of many ASAers appear. The book is available through IVP and the ASA office.


John Wiester in North Carolina
by Norris Anderson

House Bill 511 passed the General Assembly of North Carolina with 71 "Yes" to 46 "No." It now proceeds to the Senate where it must be passed out of the education committee. The law is flawed, especially since the word "evolution" is never defined. However, its movement through the Assembly provides an excellent opportunity for public education. To that end, John Wiester is in Raleigh this week [May 28-29, 1997] for a public debate and radio appearances.

He hopes to meet with the bill's advocates to lay the groundwork for a better approach in the future.

If some of you would like to participate in the educational process, your e-mail to the two chairpersons of the education committee would be appreciated. Chairwoman Leslie Winner is strongly opposed to the bill. It would be good if she could see that there are rational academicians who have a problem with the way Darwinism is presented in the schools. Send email to lesliew@ms.nega.state.nc.us and copy to the other chairman, howardl and the bill's sponsor, russellc (both with the same extensions).

Here is the bill as it passed the House: The State Board of Education shall revise the Standard Course of Study in the science curriculum to reflect that evolution
is taught as a scientific theory, not as a proven fact. 'ne Board shall make the necessary changes to the Standard
Course of Study by July 15, 1997.

Last week I was encouraged to hear of a middle school in Birmingham where the science teachers received permission from their principal to build a section of their curriculum about the new study guide to the video, "Darwinism, Science or Natural Philosophy." I have been surprised to learn how well middle school students relate to this tape.

[Editorial postscript: As of late August, John reports that this bill died but that a bill very similar to ASA's resolution, "Teach Evolution As Science," will be introduced next year. By contacting the above representatives, groundwork can be laid for next year's effort.]


Draft Legislation for North Carolina
by John Wiester

[Ed. note: The following draft legislation is reprinted here in its entirety to provide a "template" for such efforts by others, and also because it is a succinct statement from the ASA Science Education Commission chairman of the worldview issues facing those involved in government education.]

The revised Origins Draft Legislation [for NC], which Norris [Anderson] and I are recommending, is as follows:



Origins Draft Legislation

The General Assembly finds and declares the following:

WHEREAS, one of the major purposes of science education is to teach the methods of objective scientific inquiry; and

WHEREAS, the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) declared in their 1995 Statement on Teaching Evolution that the diversity of life on earth is the outcome of evolution: an unsupervised, impersonal, unpredictable, and natural process and

WHEREAS, current science textbooks present as scientific knowledge the philosophical view that life forms originated by chance, using random, naturalistic processes without plan or purpose [e.g., "evolution works without either plan or purpose ... Evolution is random and undirected." (Biology, Miller and Levine, Prentice Hall, 1995, p. 658)J and

WHEREAS, by denying plan, purpose, and direction in the origin and development of life these accounts of evolutionary theory constitute materialist philosophy masquerading as science; and

WHEREAS, biology textbooks also define evolution innocuously as "the change in living organisms over time," (Biology Living Systems, Raymond Oram, Glencoe, 1994, p. 936); and

WHEREAS, biology textbooks regularly fail to distinguish between a measured definition of evolution as the change that organisms actually do undergo with a prejudiced definition of evolution as the undirected, mechanistic change organisms must undergo if materialism is true; and

WHEREAS, precise and clear definitions are essential for communication and learning to take place; and

WHEREAS, current science textbooks fail to use precise definitions with consistency of meaning; and

WHEREAS, the potential for indoctrination exists when information is withheld from students; and

WHEREAS, current science textbooks omit any mention of problems not solved by current evolutionary theory therefore;


Be it RESOLVED by the general assembly:

Teachers and textbook publishers shall be encouraged to make distinctions between the multiple meanings of "evolution;" to distinguish between philosophical materialism and authentic science, to clearly differentiate between evidence and inference; and to include unanswered questions and unsolved problems in their presentations.

(You may also wish to add something like the following:)

Be it further resolved that the State Department of Education be instructed to seek out textbooks which make clear distinctions between macroevolution, microevolution, the theory of common descent, and Darwinism, and also those textbooks which include unsolved problems and unanswered questions along with well-established observations and inferences from those observations.

Further, in failing to find such materials, consider developing an educational aid insert for inclusion in the current textbooks. This insert should ask students and teachers to make the following distinctions between the various usages of the word "evolution."

Instead of "evolution" without qualification, use: 

Microevolution: "Evolution at and below the species level." (Mayr 1991) Generally refers to relatively minor variations that occur in populations over time.

Macroevolution: "Evolution above the species level; the evolution of higher taxa and the production of evolutionary novelties such as new structures." (Mayr 1991) Generally refers to major innovations such as new organs, structures, or body plans.

Darwinism (Neo-Darwinism, Evolutionism, Blind Watchmaker Thesis): The belief that undirected mechanistic processes (primarily random mutations and natural selection), account for both microevolution and macroevolution, and thus for all the diverse and complex living organisms that exist.

Common Descent: The theory that all organisms have been linked in the past by common ancestors.

Mayr, Ernst. One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991).


Gould Alabama Talk Reported
by Norris Anderson The Birmingham News published my wife's [Judith Anderson's edited] letter to the editor about Gould's visit. It is short but not sweet:

Dr. Stephen J. Gould, looking like a whiskerless Santa, spoke at UAB last week. Attendance was required for many students, and, of course, when a man of Dr. Gould's stature is scheduled to speak, many people from the community came to hear him. Sadly, Dr. Gould came to Birmingham with an empty bag.

'nose who were turned away need have no regrets. Dr. Gould gave a political speech.

Some of Dr. Gould's critics claim that the idea of punctuated equilibrium results from Dr. Gould's ideology rather than from facts. Dr. Gould is a Marxist biologist. Certainly his political bias was in evidence last Thursday night. He spoke about the need to muzzle "fundamentalists" in order to protect his First Amendment rights. He spoke about the "art of debate" in which one never discloses the beliefs one holds most dear. Certainly Dr. Gould did not disclose any ideas to his captive audience at UAB. He exposed his Marxist views by declaring that we are in a battle, and that the old pillars of American society will be toppled by Darwinism.

Dr. Gould's attacks on mythical fundamentalists employed tactics which he ascribed to "the other side." He misrepresented arguments, twisted history, and ridiculed the Bible. He wallowed in ad hominem attacks while announcing his willingness to debate with any creationist who was civil.

Dr. Gould brought a rich scientific knowledge to Birmingham. What a travesty that he chose not to share from the wealth of scientific information he has accumulated!

Wheaton College Shapiro-Behe Symposium

A symposium at Wheaton C. on April 24 entitled "Information in the Living Cell-A Question of Design in Nature" was organized by Larry Funck and Derek Chignell of the Wheaton Chemistry Department. The symposium consisted of major presentations by James Shapiro and Michael Behe, and a concluding roundtable, with Paul A. Nelson and David Hull of the Northwestern U. philosophy department.

The symposium helped to better define what intelligent design is and is not, and how it relates or does not relate to theological concerns.

Shapiro Speaks

James Shapiro, a professor of microbiology at the U. of Chicago, trained at Cambridge U. and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He reviewed Behe's book, Darwin's Black Box, for the National Review. His talk, "Intelligent Action: Information Processing and Decision-Making in the Life of Cells," was illustrated with "stories" about "smart microbial systems."

Microorganisms may be small, said Shapiro, but they are far from dumb. stories Shapiro told included:

1. Takeover of plants by bacteria of the species Agrobacterium tumefaciens;

2. Information processing during bacterial chemotaxis (paradigm of signal transduction networks);

3. DNA replication and how bacteria minimize random/stochastic changes to their genomes;

4. The role of natural genetic engineering systems in the evolution of bacterial antibiotic resistance;

5. Some early examples of connections between signal transduction systems and natural genetic engineering functions.

Shapiro's case fell into three main contentions:

A. Microorganisms are necessarily complex; their engineering reflects the varying demands of their existence;

B. Neo-Darwinism cannot explain this complexity;

C. However, it may be explicable naturalistically if we recognize that organisms have their own "natural genetic engineering kits."

He continued by pointing out that the "nose-spot" on E. coli, a region of sensory chemoreceptors located at one end of the cell, "has to be linked to the flagella by an 'on-board computer,' a sort of neural network performing cellular computation, if the cell is going to go the right way.

"How could these complex systems evolve?" Shapiro asked, posing a ques tion to which he would return throughout his talk. "The problem is insoluble if we take the assumption about genetic change held by neo-Darwinians, that genetic change is random. Then you literally do need miracles to build these systems."

The DNA strand in E. coli is 1,000 times the length of the cell containing it. The intracellular environment is "so unbelievably crowded it makes Hong Kong look like Nebraska." DNA replication is a "complex multicomponent machine, able to process nearly 2,000 base pairs every second," to the tune of replicating 4.5 million base pairs of DNA in about 40 minutes. When considered in tandem with its metabolic systems, E. coli DNA replication represents "the ultimate 'just-intime' production system."


Welcome, New Members: June -July 1997
Aeschliman, Sherrie --Colfax, WA
Albright, Mel -Wheaton, IL
Anderson, Larry -Pomona, CA
Berkeley, Michael --Glenwood Springs, CO
Bjerke, Mark -Monrovia, CA
Brach, Vincent -Tyler, TX
Brach, Jane -Tyler, TX
Calhoun, Vince -Baltimore, MD
Coe, Joshua -Winnsboro, TX
Cook, Harold -Pittsburgh, PA
Duff, Robert -Carbondale, IL
Goodrich, Ronald -Dana Point, CA
Harper, Jr., Charles -Radnor, PA
Hedlund, Gary -Rochester Hills, MI
Horner, Tracy -College Partk, MD
May, Laura -Pasadena, CA
Menegat, Albert -Atherton, CA
Naeher, Luke -East Haven, CT
Nishikawa, Brett -Rockville, MD
Percival, Frank -Santa Barbara, CA
Poteat, Bradley -Indianapolis, IN
Saravi, Fernando -Mendoza, Argentina
Show, Renee -Zanesville, OH
Starkey, Hallie -Sturgeon Bay, WI
Troolin, David -Papua New Guinea
Vos Strache, Carolyn -Malibu, CA

-5-

How does E. coli avoid making mistakes, he asked, when replicating DNA at this rate? It must have error correction and repair enzymes, Shapiro stressed, seguing to another of his stories, which he illustrated with a cover picture from Science magazine, showing DNA repair enzymes as "the molecule of the year." That honorific title was earned, he said, not because the DNA repair system is so intricate (although it is), but because it was discovered that humans lacking DNA repair systems are prone to colon and breast cancer. DNA repair is a "sensing, monitoring system" for assuring the fidelity of genetic information transfer, in bacteria and humans.

At this point, someone sitting in the audience said, very loudly, "Thank God!" This got a big laugh, to which Shapiro replied, "The question is: when should we thank him?" The audience laughed again.

The bottom line, Shapiro continued, is that "random genetic changes must be kept to a minimum." If change does occur, he said, it appears to be regulated in many ways, which he illustrated with the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Contrary to what many biologists believe, he said, bacterial resistance is not a good example of Darwinian microevolution. Although when antibiotic resistance was first discovered, at the beginning of what now has proven to be a "massive evolutionary experiment" (challenging bacteria with antibiotics), "we had a theory of random change and selection that was experimentally confirmed; I want to stress that."

The paradox here stems from the fact that the observational evidence was, for a time, compatible with a neo-Darwinian


-6-

account. With the work of Watanabe in Japan in the 1950s, however, microbiologists discovered that bacteria were "not modifying existing systems" to get around antibiotics. Rather, they were exchanging genetic information, "acquiring whole new genetic systems" via the world-wide transfer of plasmids (circular pieces of DNA).

He then wrapped up his stories by discussing transposable elements and directed mutation, "where control circuits in cells can regulate genetic change" (a heretical notion for many biologists), and the production of variation in human immune systems, a "highly regulated process on which our lives depend."

Shapiro's last illustration was a tour de force about the amazing genetic system of the ciliated protozoan, Oxytricha, which, in reproduction, "fractures" its own genome into thousands of pieces, only to reconstruct it "with a tremendous amount of specificity and control."

He then turned to the questions of philosophy and method: "Can we investigate this sort of design in a naturalistic context?"

Neo-Darwinism won't work. "I we take the assertions of neo-Darwinists made in the first half of this century," he said, "that genetic change is random and piecemeal, then there is no natural way to get these systems." A watch would appear to implicate a watchmaker, "yet we don't have the watchmaker." That entity is observationally inaccessible.

We do seem, however, to be learning about "the watchmaker's toolbox"namely, just "how precise, how smart cells are" in their information-processing and control capacities. This provides us with a "tremendous agenda7 to investigate design "in a purely naturalistic context."

During questions, Shapiro was asked, "Can science make assumptions about unobservables?" He answered that often it must do so. "The trick, however-the important thing-is to keep assumptions and observations distinct. The assumption of the constancy of the genome, for instance, may have been necessary for the early [twentieth-century] research into gene mapping," etc., but now we know better.

To be continued next issue.

[Editor's note: this article was adapted from Paul Nelson's report on the Wheaton meeting.]

Decher reviews TREE Article

by Jan Decher

I [Jan Decher] came across an article entitled "The new antievolution-and what to do about it" in Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE) by Eugenie C. Scott and noted avian paleontologist Kevin Padian. The article reviewed books by Phillip Johnson (Darwin on Trial) and Davis et al. (Of Pandas and People). (See TREE, 12 no. 2 [1997]: 84). The authors state that l[ntclligent] D[esign] proponents often mislead the public that current arguments about how evolution occurs are really arguments about whether evolution has occurred. There is a broader challenge to science here. ID proponents want us to redefine how we do science to allow for the occasional miracle.

They recommend that Professors should be explicit in their courses about the relationship of evolution to the rest of biology, geology, astronomy and anthropology. It is arguably impossible to teach a course in these disciplines competently without the underpinnings of evolution. Scientists also have to be more explicit about teaching science as a way of knowing-another subject that doesn't usually come through strongly enough.

They conclude:

Most cannot discuss the importance of restricting science to explaining the natural world through natural causes. Scientists can help by thinking globally and acting locally: participation in the public process is the best way to show concern, offer help and win trust.

The authors never refer to the main thrust of the critique of people like Phil Johnson, that just teaching evolution easily resembles just teaching religion given that underlying assumptions need to be "believed" or just "accepted"-especially if we argue, as Scott and Padian do, that "science is restricted to natural explanations." The authors never even consider that by only seeing "fundamentalist theology" as opposed to ttscience" one easily slips into a position of "fundamentalist science."


Mims has last word

Forrest Mims was turned down by Scientific American magazine as the "Amateur Scientist" columnist when it was learned that he had difficulties with Darwinism. The admission cost him the job. Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education had voiced the opinion at the time that Mims would be an inappropriate role model as a columnist. Recently, Mims wrote:

I am happy to announce that I developed the May project for "Amateur Scientist" in Scientific American. (The project was developed under an NSF grant, and the column [w]as written by Shawn Carlson.) The magazine's new editor is considerably more open than his predecessorand Scott. He has published two of my letters-both after peer review.


Forrest added a quip about Scott and her colleagues, who "love to point to the lack of biological publications by confirmed advocates of creation/intelligent design. Mims notes that "(Michael] Belie, of course, changes that."

Mims has been publishing his research based on measurements of severe aerosol loading and significantly reduced UV-B in Brazil in Photochemistry and Photobiology and has a full-page letter in Bioscience. An electronics engineer by background, he finds biology fascinating work when approached from a design standpoint, with "new insights and discoveries just waiting to be made."

For example, he is looking into the negative correlation of influenza and UVB. Some other airborne infectious diseases also exhibit such anti-correlation. Since viruses are suppressed by UV-B as well, Mims observes, "it may very well be that UV-B is more important in the natural world than previously believed." R Forrest Mims


ASA Business

The formal core of the ASA Annual Meeting is the business meeting. Extended discussion of how to manage ASA finances included the announcement that new board member, Jay Hollman, will seek grants for special projects. Funding of ASA remains a continual problem; generous ASAers give beyond their dues to cover ASA operating expenses.

The report on our African scientific counterparts in Kenya (African Inst. for Scientific Research and Educational Development [AISRED]) told of Martin Price meeting with George Kinoti, who is retiring as zoology prof. at the university in Nairobi to head AISRED.

PSCF book review editor Richard Ruble put in a plug for our 1999 ASA Meeting (ASA99?) at John Brown U. in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Fred Hickernell is program chairman for the July 30-Aug. 2 meeting.


Call for Papers and Poster Presentations

The ASA/CiS International Conference will be held in Cambridge, England at Churchill C., 2-5 August 1998. We are open to contributions on any topic related to the purpose of CiS and the ASA.

The title of your presentation, mode of presentation (oral, poster, or panel discussion), and a 250-300 word abstract (preferably by e-mail or on disk) must be at the ASA office by Jan. 10, 1998. Each abstract will receive two reviews and will either be accepted as is, accepted with revision, accepted only as a poster, or rejected. Due to schedule limitations, authors may present only one paper, but they can be included on other multiple author papers.

Papers will be given a 20-minute time slot: 5 min. for a summary and 15 min. for discussion. A hard copy and disk copy of each paper must be sent to the ASA office by June 1, 1998. Try to keep the length to 15 double-spaced pages. Papers will be placed on the ASA web site for downloading prior to the meeting.

Authors of poster exhibits will be supplied with detailed instructions upon acceptance of their abstracts.

Personals

Daniel Simon has moved from Phoenix, AZ to Akron, OH. While on vacation in Ohio in early July, Dan interviewed for a control engineering job on a Friday, received an offer on Monday, bought a house Monday evening, and sold his Phoenix house a week later. The Editor spent the last three days at the Simon residence while driving back from ASA97 in Santa Barbara, CA, Dan was accompanied on the road to Ohio by his wife, Annette, their four children, and her parents, Reini and Arlene Webel.


With the Lord

The sad news was relayed via e-mail from the Washington-Baltimore local section that "David L. Swift has died [on July 3, 1997], apparently from complications from an old infection of hepatitis C. Dave had been active in local ASA section and annual meetings, to which he was usually accompanied by his wife, Suzanne." E Paul Arveson

David was an ASA Fellow and prof. of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins U. in Baltimore, MD. David's research was in environmental health engineering, air pollution, and aerosol science. He graduated from Purdue U. in 1957, from MIT in 1959, and got his doctorate at Johns Hopkins in 1963, all in chemical engineering. He did post-doc work at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine until 1966. He was also a past elder at Central Presbyterian Church in Towson, MD.

David expected ASA to primarily deal with issues, explain science to the church, and provide fellowship. He was also a good counselor of younger ASAers, and would stay up late at ASA Meetings discussing personal decisions faced by them.

George J. Bertsche of Woodburn, IN died on June 18, 1997. He was an electronics design engineer at ITT in Ft. Wayne, IN. George got his BSEE from Purdue U. in 1951 and a Th.M. from Dallas Seminary in 1957. George was first introduced to ASA by Hendrick Oorthuys at Purdue. George considered that ASA's main effort should be to deal with issues and work with students.

Also, Betty Boardman, the wife of the late Don Boardman, a former Council member and President, died on April 14, 1997. Don taught geology at Wheaton for many years.

Biologist Tom Dent of Brunswick, OH died of cancer July 12. He will be missed, not only by his wife, Beverly, but by the Pittsburgh ASA local section.

Also gone is Douglas Taylor of Tahlequah, OK. He was a Wheaton C. grad and a surgeon who attended the U. of Oregon Medical School in Portland. Doug made many trips for TEAMission to Zululand, S. Africa, to work with a mission hospital there. He enjoyed ASA's journal "very much all those years."

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Original ASAers Honored

A truly original ASAer, F. Alton Everest, one of the five founders of ASA, was honored at the Saturday evening banquet. Walter Hearn presented a plaque to Alton in tribute to his outstanding contributions to the relationship of science and Christianity in the formation and development of ASA. Walt recounted Alton's early leadership in ASA, as its first president, when ASA was the only American organization promoting the discussion of the relationship of science and Christian faith. Alton also produced several Moody Institute of Science films.

We also paid tribute to Roger Voskuyl, another long-time contributor to ASA. President Ken Olson presented Roger with an ASA plaque and made the following remarks:

I have known Dr. Voskuyl for many years as a student at Westmont C. In the early 1960s, he was president of the college. I looked up to him in awe. As a chemistry student, I was impressed that he was a chemist and could be president of a college.

Roger has been an ASA member for over 50 years. He was present at the very first meeting of the ASA in 1946 at Wheaton C. He also attended the 1947, 1948, and 1949 meetings and presided over the paper sessions.

He served on the ASA Executive Council from 1948-52. He was vice-president under Everest and vice-president under [Russell] Mixter in 1951. He was a member of the committee that revised the 1941 constitution; the revision was accepted and began operation in 195 1.

He wrote the introductory chapter to ASA's first book, published in 1948: Modem Science and Christian Faith.

The plaque inscriptions briefly recount the contributions of both ASAers and conclude with: "For these things we honor you."

Alton and Roger said a few words in  response to the tribute paid them, briefly recounting some ASA events in their past. Ken Olson

1998: ASA Meets in England

The ASA Annual Meeting next year will be held at Churchill C., Cambridge U., England, from Sun., 2 Aug.-Wed., 5 Aug. It will be a joint meeting with ASA's British counterpart, Christians in Science. The meeting theme is "Christianity and Science: Into a New Millennium."

Featured speakers are: John Houghton and Francis Collins. Symposia and theme sessions include: brain-mind, history of science, environmental concerns, and biological and physical sciences. A postmeeting tour of the British Isles is also planned.