Re: Student perceptions re evolution

From: Donald Nield (d.nield@auckland.ac.nz)
Date: Wed Aug 27 2003 - 17:32:30 EDT

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    Brian Harper wrote:

    > At 12:35 PM 8/27/2003 -0600, Terry M. Gray wrote:
    > >Brian Harper wrote:
    > >
    > >>
    > >>This issue does seem to be problematic. Is methodological naturalism
    > >>really the way of doing science or is it just a way to circumvent ID?
    > >>If it is (and I agree that it is), then why is it one sided? Why doesn't
    > >>MN also constrain the atheist scientist?
    > >>
    > >>This lack of symmetry will continue to provide fuel to the
    > >>flames of rhetoric until its corrected.
    > >
    > >I'm having some difficulty in this thread understanding why we don't think
    > >that Dawkins violates MN. (I'm going to leave Gould out--I'm somewhat
    > >surprised at how hard we're coming down on him--he's a totally different
    > >beast than Dawkins in my opinion.) When Dawkins promotes atheism (or
    > >anti-theism) in the name of science, he is NOT doing MN. He's not
    > >constrained by it because he's not just about promoting a science agenda,
    > >but also a religio-philosophical agenda. (There's this "life is religion"
    > >part of me that says that he is being more honest and wholistically human
    > >about his religious view than we Christians and others who encourage the
    > >elimination of religion-talk from our science-talk.)
    >
    > Yes, I agree he isn't doing MN. My question about symmetry
    > is why he would not be similarly constrained as a theist.
    > For example, I believe he should be treated by the scientific
    > community with the same disdain shown towards ID.

    I agree that Dawkins should be treated with disdain. In fact I have been told
    by a biologist who has done postgraduate work at Oxford that Dawkins is treated
    with disdain by members of the Oxford biological community.
    Don Nield



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