>Ray Grizzle expressed surprise in his recent (June 1997) PCSF report at the
>number of scientists NOT caring if theistic science" came into being or
>not at ~95%, The number did not surprise me. I'd have put the number at
>99+% myself. But partially this is due to the question not being well
>quantified..
My impression from the PSCF report (which I don't have in front of me)
was that the issue was NOT "What percent would not *care* if theistic
science came into being?" but rather "What percent would not *have their
work impacted* if theistic science came into being?" With the latter
definition, I'd agree with the 99+% estimate. I can't think of anybody
whose work would be affected by such a paradigm shift except for some
minority of those in the biological sciences and maybe a few cosmologists.
>The more general question is how many people really think about / care
>about origins questions at all (to any significant extent). I think this
>number is very small, in the order of perhaps 10,000 or so, US-wide. Others
>have told me that estimate is far too low.
The cynic in me says the "think about" number is pretty small, and the
"care" number is much larger. If you define "care" to include a
knee-jerk reaction of "that's the enemy of our faith" when the word
"evolution" is mentioned, then millions of Christians have been
conditioned to care. It seems to me that (to echo ideas from my recent
reading of _God Did It, But How?_) progress will only come when these
millions are taught that, while the "Who" origins question is worth
caring about deeply, the "How" question isn't.
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| Dr. Allan H. Harvey | aharvey@boulder.nist.gov |
| Physical and Chemical Properties Division | Phone: (303)497-3555 |
| National Institute of Standards & Technology | Fax: (303)497-5224 |
| 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303 | |
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| "Don't blame the government for what I say, or vice versa." |
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