Re: textbooks

Allan Harvey (aharvey@boulder.nist.gov)
Fri, 05 Dec 1997 12:41:26 -0700

At 12:35 PM 12/5/97 -0500, Keith Walker wrote:
>Message text written by Allan Harvey
>>Unfortunately, too many in the church
>>today buy into the Sagan/Johnson scoring system where a scientific
>>explanation of something is interpreted to mean the absence of God.
>
>Perhaps you could help me. I haven't come across this scoring system. I
>can guess who Sagan is, but I don't know of any Johnson in the public eye
>who believes that a scientific explanation of something means the absence
>of God.

Just on the off chance that the above was not written with tongue in
cheek, let me clarify that the reference was to anti-evolution crusader
Phil Johnson.
[And let me quickly add that it was *not* directed at the "theistic
science" movement as a whole, many of whom do not follow Johnson's
unfortunate lead in giving the impression that the truth of theism is
dependent on the existence of certain "gaps" in natural history.]

We had this whole discussion here about 2 months ago (look in the
archives for posts with "Carl Sagan" in the title and also Loren
Haarsma's excellent "ID and fine-tuning. Now what?"); I don't think
rehashing it now would be fruitful.

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| Dr. Allan H. Harvey | aharvey@boulder.nist.gov |
| Physical and Chemical Properties Division | "Don't blame the |
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