CORRESPONDENCE
CORRESPONDENCE Debating Design The current (December 2005/ January 2006) issue of TAS is the best one yet. Dan Peterson's article, "What's the Big Deal About Intelligent Design?" has to be...
...Davis states that many would hesitate to identify Newton as a "fervent Christian" because of his unorthodox views on the Trinity...
...Charles Lyellwas a Unitarian, not a "thoroughgoing Christian," to offer another example, and it is not clear that Ren~ Descartes was "devout," although he was clearly a believer in God...
...Just what Jesus does Ms...
...SPYROS P, ANTIPPAS Hampton Falls, New Hampshire Although I am sympathetic with some of its main points, Dan Peterson's article on intelligent design leaves readers with some inaccurate and misleading impressions of important aspects of modern science...
...For example, the Babylonians knew of the properties of the right triangle, formulated by the Pythagorean theorem, for centuries before Pythagoras who proved why these properties must be true...
...We will be hard pressed to find a man more principled...
...The Greek thinkers stressed the logical speculation over the experimental verification stressed by Bacon...
...I am, in fact, the co-editor (with Matt Young) of Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism (Rutgers University Press, 2004), where contributors from various scientific disciplines point out the numerous scientific flaws in ID claims...
...RAY CARNEY Lakewood, Colorado MARCH 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 11...
...I suspect that Peterson might even agree with that himself...
...But whether the religious views of Newton or Lyell were doctrinally orthodox is not the point...
...Other ancient Greek thinkers deduced from observations of the curvature of the horizon that the earth must be a sphere, and in the 3rd century B.C...
...Indeed, some of Dembski's writings in response to his scientific opponents are cited in Prof...
...This is simply not so-although some historians do argue for this type of monocausal account, most reject it as a onelegged stool that will not support the weight of the evidence...
...Edis's own book...
...It is easy to place labels as Ms...
...There is no doubting the fervency of Newton's religious belief, so apparently Prof...
...Davis is questioning whether Newton was a Christian...
...I presumed these achievements to be well known to readers of The American Spectator...
...It is true that "about 40 percent of American scientists believe in a personal God and in an afterlife" but most of the scientists in this category (ironically) are not given an effective voice in Peterson's article...
...To many scientists in this category, however, it does not mean that one cannot find important points where science and religion intersect-including places where science points toward transcendence, such as the fine tuning of the cosmos or the almost incredible power of mathematics to describe nature with great precision and subtlety...
...The ignorance displayed by her letter is characteristic of that which will be encountered byRomneyshouldhe emerge as the GOP candidate...
...Woodward believe in...
...All one has to do to find a location is to look in the phone book under the title "Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints" Perhaps, by so doing, they will learn why the church is growing dramatically while other Christian denominations are stagnant or see a declining membership...
...religion asks why...
...For those interested in learning do so first-hand by attending church services and asking questions of an unpaid clergy member who presides over one of their local congregations...
...Although no one yet knows whether ID will succeed or fail, the dispute should be a scientific one, not a battle over philosophical doctrine enforced by elements of the scientific establishment or by the courts...
...In the politics of science, the politics drives the science, regardless of which end of the spectrum the politics is coming from, and the truth is often lost in the process...
...The ostensible pigeonholing of their views is a straw man argn10 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MARCH 2006 CORRESPONDENCE ment, not a position taken by me...
...By relying too closely on Stark, Peterson 6 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MARCH 2006 CORRESPONDENCE pushes this point too far: contrary to what he claims, "the JudeoChristian worldview" is not "the only belief system that actually produced" science...
...Unfortunately Stark also gives readers the impression that historians generally agree that Christianity caused modem science...
...Let's hope whoever emerges as the GOP candidate will be one of equal integrity and honor...
...19), while stating that the development of science "as an organized, sustained enterprise" and as a"cumulative, rigorous, systematic, and ongoing investigation into the laws of nature" occurred only in Europe...
...Archimedes introduced the principles of hydrostatics, proved mathematically the principle of levers, and developed the mathematical theory of reflection of light by plane and spherical mirrors by means of experiment and logic...
...Distinguished Professor of the History of Science Messiah College Grantham, Pennsylvania Dan Peterson's defense of Intelligent Design in The American Spectator will no doubt attract a lot of criticism...
...What he fails to realize is that this maxim can mean different things in practice to various scientists...
...Woodward has done...
...ID controversy...
...I predict that Peterson's article will be the third...
...Edis himself notes in his recent anti-ID book, often "the first defense of evolution [ID proponents] encounter is that their ideas are intrinsically unscientifi c - t h a t science cannot even properly consider non-naturalistic claims such as ID, let alone accept them...
...Edis, I cannot agree that the ID proponents have been "ignoring" the work of presenting counterarguments and evidence in response to scientific criticisms...
...Regarding the letter from Prof...
...In ancient Greece and the medieval Islamic world, science was limited in scope and ultimately died out...
...He was laid to rest in a tomb and three days later was miraculously resurrected and came forth from the tomb with a glorified body of flesh and bone and proclaimed himself to be the Christ the very Son of God and the Savior of mankind...
...What I wrote was that "some theists" have accepted the materialists' position that religion is purely subjective and unverifiable, and that it cannot be allowed to encroach on the realm of materialist "truths" that alone can form the basis for our public discourse...
...I did not even attempt to describe their views...
...It is not...
...In examining the historical evidence, I cited by name (or by reference to Stark's book) 65 important figures in the development of modern science who were Christian believers...
...As an example, since my conversion in 1957, I have seen around a 2,500 percent increase in church membership in this area compared to a population growth in the 300 percent to 400 percent range...
...The article demonstrated that history shows otherwise...
...For example, he accurately reports that we have completely debunked the old "warfare" view of Andrew Dickson White, and he provides some pertinent examples of how that false view has functioned as a kind of secular mythology for more than a century...
...So far, they have been ignoring such work, preferring to focus on theological disputes...
...The problem here is not that certain figures are miscategorized, it is rather that Peterson seems all too eager to create a sort of mythology of his own, without regard to the actual facts...
...It is overwhelmingly refuted by history...
...Following Peterson, one would conclude that religious scientists fit into one of two categories: those who are bold enough publicly to support intelligent design and those who have"interpret[ed] away many of the central beliefs of the Judeo-Christian tradition" and have passively "retire[d] to a cozy warren of warm, fuzzy irrelevancy...
...Prof...
...She recommends that Republicans learn about Momonism before they vote by reading the works of two anti-Mormon authors...
...I have a better idea...
...This, he declares, is "simple minded" and "insulting...
...ID advocates William Dembski and Michael Behe have repeatedly countered their critics on the substantive merits of their mathematical and scientific arguments regarding design...
...Davis claims that I have "misrepresented" or "oversimplified" the views of three historically important scientists...
...Eratosthenes determined by simple ingenious measurements the diameter of the earth within 5 percent of the currently accepted value...
...Thus, my article merely acknowledged the contributions of other civilizations (p...
...It is true that Stark, a sociologist, usually does provide an accurate presentation of the views that historians of science hold concerning Christianity and science...
...IfID proponents want to be taken seriously within science, they might begin by presenting counterargnments and evidence relevant to such criticisms...
...Undo Darwinism," TAS, June 2005) described one such scientific exchange between ID proponents and ID critics on the bacterial flagellum, and there are many other examples...
...The issue is whether the materialists' contention that acknowledgment of design is incompatible with science is borne out by the facts of history...
...he performed miracles and loved even the sinners...
...Peterson also misrepresents, or at least greatly oversimplifies, the religious views of some historically important scientists...
...This book changed the entire debate and in the early 1990s Michael Behe's book, Darwin's Black Box, was the next milestone...
...Such a response only strengthens the suspicion of mainstream scientists that ID is an ideological and not a scientific position...
...As he says in his book, "Methodological naturalism cannot be used as an IDstopper...
...Europe, steeped in a Judeo-Christian worldview that accepted design, was incomparably successful in nurturing and producing science, and most of the founders of Western science believed in a creator God...
...Edis condemns that approach...
...What we need on all sides, it seems to me, is more sensitivity to the complexities and nuances that characterize the actual historical and contemporary situation, whether or not they fit the particular perspective that one brings to bear on them...
...Woodward wishes the reader to compare biblical Christianity with Mormonism...
...Maybe not "purely," but it is the major line of attack As Prof...
...He has overlooked the introduction of the systematic logical formulation of scientific methods by Greek thinkers between the 6th century B.C...
...Those are the "actual facts...
...Davis would have it, that most of the founders of science in Europe were Christian believers...
...And so it would be, had I written such a thing...
...With that, I couldn't agree more...
...What it means to all of them is that the Bible does not provide a scientifically reliable history of creation (contrary to the claims of "creationists") and that science is not a source of ultimate meaning and values (contraryto the claims of scientific materialists...
...In 1963 Drs...
...I have scanned the article, giving all credits, and have passed it to many friends, with great profit...
...an obvious example is biologist Francis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project at the NIH), whose Christian testimony was published in the New York Times and who is writing a book about the intersection of his traditional Christian beliefs with his work as a scientist, but it would be easyfor me to name dozens more American scientists who are no less public about their Christian commitment...
...Could Mitt Romney overcome this type of shallow minded prejudice...
...Regarding his assertion that it is "not clear" that Descartes was "devout" although "he was clearly a believer in God'--well, some nits are hardlyworth picking...
...Indeed, Prof...
...has to be a fantastic milestone in the evolution vs...
...That is, we are to worship the Father alone as God Almighty & Iesus alone as the Lord the Messiah the great King the Lamb of God who was slain & hath redeemed us with his blood...
...One reason for this is his uncritical reliance on Rodney Stark's recent book, For the Glory of God...
...We believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary in a stable in Bethlehem and is the Only Begotten Son of God in the flesh...
...He contends that it is "not quite true" that ID has been declared nonscience "purely" on philosophical grounds...
...Many of us have treated ID as a claim that is subject to scientific criticism, and have shown exactly how the claims of ID theorists fail to add up to a substantial criticism of Darwinian evolution...
...however, they pioneered the mathematical formulation of universal principles of science...
...It is true that many of these scientists would endorse the maxim Peterson states as, "Science asks how...
...EDWARD B. DAVIS, PH.D...
...He was persecuted for his beliefs, spit upon, unfairly judged, and eventually crucified by those who opposed his teachings and beliefs...
...Davis adds that science existed in the Islamic world as well...
...Right...
...He walked the dustyroads of Judea preaching the Gospel of repentance and baptism...
...Because Isaac Newton explicitly rejected the Trinity as a heresy and the divinity of Christ as a form of idolatry, many would hesitate to identify him as "a fervent Christian...
...The question, though, is not whether Christianity is the "mono - causal" explanation for the development of science (which I did not claim it to be...
...My work as a historian of Christianity and science has brought me into contact with literally hundreds of religious American scientists from all major fields of science, and most of them defy categorization in such simple-minded, even insulting, terms...
...Davis laments that I did not give an "effective voice" to the 40 percent of scientists who are religious...
...Many materialists attempt to rule out that thesis on philosophical grounds, asserting that any explanation that admits the possibility of design is automatically "not science...
...Although Lyell was interested in Unitarian views and sometimes (especially in his later years) attended Unitarian services, he was a member of the Church of England all of his life...
...Debating Mormonism Mary Alan Woodward, in the Correspondence section of the February 2006 issue of TAS, addresses the potential candidacy of Mitt Romney as the GOP standard-bearer in the 2008 election (as discussed by Grover Norquist in a prior issue...
...Christianity did play some very important roles in shaping and encouraging science in the early modem period-and this by itself is sufficient to refute the "warfare" view-but science existed in sophisticated forms outside of Christian Europe in the Islamic world and even before the time of Christ in ancient Greece...
...Prof...
...I want to point out just one thing: it is not quite true that mainstream scientists have declared ID nonscientific purely on philosophical grounds...
...He believed in an afterlife, and repeatedly affirmed his view that the world was created by God...
...He has shown great possibilities by being elected governor in one of the bluest states in the country, Massachusetts, where he has been remarkably effective...
...The Babylonians and the Egyptians had a wealth of empirical knowledge, i.e.,~'know how...
...The Greek thinkers introduced the "know why...
...I f it is to fail, ID should be allowed to fail as a scientific proposal...
...Any fair-minded person will see little similaritybetween the Church established by Jesus and that of current day churches...
...If His church had not been distorted and corrupted over the centuries bythe likes of such as the Roman Emperor Constantine there would not have been need for a restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, which Mormons believe occurred...
...I would encourage any interested party to do so and, at the same time, compare it with the dogma and structure of the current day main line Christian churches...
...SEELYE La Habra, California Dan Peterson traces the foundations of modern scientific methods to medieval Christian clergy and monks ("What's the Big Deal About Intelligent Design...
...I t is not a "mythology of my own" as Prof...
...My first article on ID ("The Little Engine That Could...
...Furthermore, many scientists in this category are far more willing to talk publicly about theology than Peterson's talk about privatization suggests...
...However, his flat statement that geologist "Charles Lyell was a Unitarian" is, unfortunately, the "oversimplification" here...
...That statement did not refer to scientistsl but to "some" theists (particularly, some religious leaders, as exemplified by the quote from Phillip Johnson that follows in the article...
...He is atrue conservative who upholds all the high ideals of Christians and the Republican Party...
...ROBERT 1...
...Those are true statements...
...Antippas believes I have "overlooked" the role of the ancient Greeks in the development of science, and Prof...
...TAS, December 2005/January 2006...
...I don't know...
...Her diatribe is nothing other than a venomous attack against Mormonism and displays her total lack of understanding about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
...To his credit, Prof...
...And I did not claim that ID was the only alternative to retreat, but specifically noted that on these issues there are "nuances and intermediate positions...
...and the Christian era...
...This is most evident in Peterson's treatment of the modem controversy about God and science...
...Probably 50 percent of the adult membership in my congregation are converts...
...Newton considered himselfa Christian andwrote voluminously on theological subjects, including such passages as: "There is but one God the father of whom are all things & we of him, & one Lord Iesus Christ by whom are all things & we by him...
...Readers are urged to read more widely, and to have a larger conception of what it means to "follow the truth wherever it leads...
...Davis next takes me to task for allegedly trying to pigeonhole all religious scientists into two categories: supporters of ID, and those who, when faced with advancing materialism, retreat into "warm, fuzzy irrelevancy...
...Prof...
...Morris and Whitcomb came out with The Genesis Flood...
...Both were religious men, were within the Christian tradition, and believed that the universe was designed by a creator God...
...TANER EDIS Associate Professor of Physics Truman State University Kirksville, Missouri continued on poge 10 MARCH 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 7 CORRESPONDENCE Dan Peterson Replies: The central point of my article was that the Intelligent Design movement has sparked a conflict between materialism and theism, by claiming that evidence of design (and thus of a Designer) can be detected in nature by scientific means...
...Only in predominantly Christian Europe did it take deep root, flourish, become a well-articulated system, and spread worldwide...
Vol. 39 • March 2006 • No. 2
