Monday, October 02, 2006

A public forum on evolution and ID

I have been asked to participate in a public forum at the Baptist Student Union here at UT on October 10, 17, and 24 with a retired physicist and ID supporter by the name of Neal Caldwell. We will discuss the nature of science, evolutionary theory and how theology should or should not play a role in scientific discourse. The proceedings will be moderated by Julian Reese.

Along the way, we will try to define Intelligent Design and distinguish it from "creationism" and what the evidence for macroevolution really is. It should be fun. If you are local, please swing by. It will be at noon on each Tuesday.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:48 PM

    Ah Jim, how does one distinguish ID from creationism? Isn't the first, natural question for ID is, "okay, so who is the creator?" and has anyone offered a different possible answer than the Judeo/Christian deity? It is not like someone is going to argue that Earth is a terraforming experiment from a higher level of species from another system in the galaxy.

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  2. H. Allen Orr suggests the same thing. He wonders if there is any way to determine whether or not it was aliens from space. He then wants to know who created them, anyway. The funny thing is that the ID people are attempting to distance themselves from the Creationists because of the moonbat nature of the six-day claims. At heart, the two are very different.

    The six-day folks think (erroneously) that they can use natural processes to explain the creation of the universe in six 24 hour days 6k years ago. The ID folks suggest that natural processes cannot explain certain developments such as the compound eye and the formation of the inner ear. The problem of course is that no mechanism is posited.

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