On Tue, 4 Mar 1997 15:35:12 -0500, John W. Burgeson wrote:
>JWB>You asked "who said it, the dean or Phil Johnson?"
>
>It was Phil. Sorry for not making that clear.
OK. Thanks.
JWB>You commented on Schafersman a lot. You really need to read his
>paper. He writes well and, whether one agrees with him or not, is
>interesting. Criticisms of him from what I write are not likely to
>be on target.
I didn't comment "Schafersman a lot" and neither did I "criticise
him" much either. My comments were more on atheism generally rather
than on Schafersman in particular.
JWB>On the question (theists ought not be scientists on moral
>grounds) that he makes, he specifically says it is a moral question
>-- but not an ethical one; he does not accuse theistic scientists of
>acting in bad faith. Rather, he describes it as a sort of "lack of
>courage."
OK. His criticism sounds a bit similar to what Johnson writes of
TEs:
"In a free intellectual environment, we might expect that Christian
theists would vigorously assert that some conclusions of the
methodological atheists who rule science may be as faulty as the
unsound premise from which they were derived. The reason theists do
not (should not?) do this, it seems, is they are afraid-for both
legal and intellectual reasons-to enter the debate." (Johnson P.E.,
"Reason in the Balance", 1995, p99)
JWB>I had seen your description of Schafersman by Gish before, of
>course. The person Gish described did not fit the appearance or
>conduct of the person I encountered. Yes, they are the same person.
No doubt both Gish and you are right. Ruse admitted that creationists
were easier to "hate" in print than in person:
"...I was invited to participate by some evangelicals in what was a
sort of weekend session that they'd got, and Phillip Johnson and I
were put face to face. And as I always find when I meet creationists
or non-evolutionists or critics or whatever, I find it a lot easier
to hate them in print than I do in person." (Ruse M., "Nonliteralist
Anti-Evolutionism: The Case of Phillip Johnson", 1993 Annual Meeting
of the AAAS, Symposium "The New Antievolutionism", February 13, 1993)
JWB>You probably asked me another question or two in the last
>evolution-digest I received; apologies for missing any others. For
>me, specifically, it helps if you add me to the copy list when you
>ask me somehing on the reflector.
OK. I'll try and remember.
God bless.
Steve
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