In a message dated 4/22/00 6:55:01 AM Dateline Standard Time,
hvantill@novagate.com writes:
>Thanks for being willing to say it so candidly. That's why I have been
>saying that what is called "ID Theory" would be more accurately called
>"Extra-natural Assembly Theory" because of the key role played by occasional
>form-imposing interventions performed by an extra-natural agent.
But it would not be more accurate in my case. For one thing, the
extra-natural
agent I envision need be no more extra-natural than Howard Van Till.
Secondly,
you lose much of the methodological constraints I employ with such a name
change, as I envision such intelligent intervention to reflect rationality
and this
element is completely lost with your name change.
Furthermore, this business of a key role is often misunderstood. I do not
view the key role from a philosophical perspective, but a historical
perspective.
That is, the key role of intelligent intervention is not a question of
forming life
or chordates (as those things might very well have formed at some point
without intelligent intervention), but in explaining why *this* reality
exists rather than a near
infinite number of other possible realities that could have existed. If
intelligent intervention was part of history, of course it played a key role
in generating *this* reality. Just as Howard's very existence and
intelligent intervention has played
a key role behind the existence of *his* arguments. If Howard had died as a
child,
would the formational capabilities of the universe have provided a complete
substitute such that on April 22, 2000, I would be having the exact same
argument, just with
someone else?
Look at it this way. Is Howard's existence really required to explain the
existence of his arguments? From one perspective, we might say no. That is,
it would not have been impossible for someone else to have converged on the
same form of argument had Howard never existed. But to explain to existence
of Howard's actual argument, we have to invoke Howard's intelligent
intervention. Why? Not because it was required, but because that's how it
happened.
Mike
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