>
> >SJ>I call on those evolutionists (particularly Christians) who have opposed
> >>the ID movement to re-evaluate their position in the light of this
> emerging new
> >>evidence and not go down with the sinking ship of scientific materialism
> >>out of misguided loyalty to science (as it is currently conceived). Your
> >>loyalty as scientists should be to the *data*, not to
> >materialistic-naturalistic philosophy.
>
>RK>Why should Christian evolutionists ("particularly"), jump on ID's rescue
> >ship?
>
>All evolutionists' "loyalty as scientists should be to the *data*, not to
>materialistic-naturalistic philosophy." But maybe it could be argued that for
>non-Christians they have *some* excuse?
why on earth do you think Christian scientists are not loyal to the data?
This chemist's opinion is not data. It is his opinion. I read his talk and
I couldn't see him offer any supporting evidence for his opinion other than
a lack of imagination and information. If he is going to talk about things
outside his field he really needs to be more informed about it.
>But I can think of *no* excuse for a scientist who claims to be a Christian
>to persist with to persist with a "loyalty" to a "materialistic-naturalistic
>philosophy" rather than to the "data".
>
>That of course does not mean that there *is* no excuse. It is just that I
>personally cannot think of one. Mind you it would be interesting to see if
>any "Christian evolutionist" on this List would supply an excuse why they
>should have a loyalty to a "materialistic-naturalistic philosophy" rather
>than
>to the "data".
If I were one of them I would be deeply insulted by this remark. The
scientific method is a way of getting at the truth of things. It intends to
eliminate wishful thinking and magical thinking. The truth of things is
supposed to be extremely important to Christians. If God exists and
Christianity is true, they exist in the same reality as science and
evolution. If ID exists and the hand of God has been tinkering with the
history of life for the last 3.5 billion years, that tinkering should leave
behind traces that can be detected using the scientific method. So far ID
has not been able to produce any of these traces with any reliability. ID
has no data to which to be loyal. In the above paragraph (and in other
things you have written) you seem to suggest that a good Christian would
ignore that fact and pretend that ID is scientific in the absence of
scientific evidence.
Susan
--------
Always ask. Hang out with people who make you laugh. Love as many people as
you can. Read everything you can get your hands on. Take frequent naps.
Watch as little television as you can stand. Tell people what you want. Do
what you love as much as you can. Dance every day.
--------
Please visit my website:
http://www.telepath.com/susanb
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