Paul Durham responded:
>Good for him! Since evolutionists tend to hold the market in secular
>textbooks, it would be appropriate that they collectively come up with
>a statement that generally addresses this issue. Unfortunately,
>whenever others have proposed a statement or sticker in the front of
>textbooks stating that there are alternative explanations as to origins
>or interpretation of the data, the response has been the exact opposite.
I want to poiint out here that Wayne is an Evangelical Christian who
believes that evolution is a good model to explain origins and who doesn't
hold to progressive or special creationists viewpoints. However, he does
believe that evolution should be presented more objectively and not as
absolute truth.
Some years ago, several of us, Wayne Becker included, put together a series
of scholarly talks from a Christian perspective for the campus. This was
very much like the Veritas Forum that has been held on several campuses in
the last two years. Our production was known as the "I Dissent" Series in
which a statement from popular culture was made, followed by the disclaimer,
I Dissent. Wayne's talk was entitled, "Science and Christianity are
Incompatible--I Dissent". In his paper he made a passing reference to
evolution and said in one sentence that he found it an attractive model.
Well, when the papers were compiled into a manuscript, it was rejected by
the publisher who had earlier agreed to publishing it. The problem?
Wayne's fleeting admission to some affinity for evolution.
Sure, other Christian publishers are willing to handle things from Howard
Van Till and others, but from Wayne Becker's example with his textbook in
molecular biology, there also exist secular publishers willing to risk not
being Scientifically Correct. Why continue to rail on this reflector about
the excesses of secular publishers when they are not in attendance? You are
preaching to the choir. Why not talk about the problem of Theological
Correctness in Christian publishing circles since those who have a chance to
make an influence are those who participate on this reflector? Frankly,
dealing with the excesses of Christian Orthodoxy regarding science,
particularly evolution, would facilitate our request for more responsible
handling of popular science since it would remove a major reason why our
opponents are reticent to consider what we ask.
Cheers,
Steve
__________________________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D. Phone: (608) 263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: (608) 263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Ctr
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53792
"I had a great deal of respect for that preacher and I was saddened when
he was called to a bigger church. He was a Baptist, but he was still a
loss to the community". Ferrol Sams in EPIPHANY
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