*chortle*

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Christians battle each other over evolution

First the article:

The Discovery Institute – the Seattle-based headquarters of the intelligent design movement – has just launched a new website, Faith and Evolution, which asks, can one be a Christian and accept evolution? The answer, as far as the Discovery Institute is concerned, is a resounding: No.

The new website appears to be a response to the recent launch of the BioLogos Foundation, the brainchild of geneticist Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project and rumoured Obama appointee-to-be for head of the National Institutes of Health. Along with "a team of scientists who believe in God" and some cash from the Templeton Foundation, Collins, an evangelical Christian who is also a staunch proponent of evolution, is on a crusade to convince believers that faith and science need not be at odds. He is promoting "theistic evolution" – the belief that God (the prayer-listening, proactive, personal God of Christianity) chose to create life by way of evolution.

It sounds like a nice idea, but to my mind any time you try to reconcile science and religion by rejecting Stephen Jay Gould's notion of "non-overlapping magisteria" and instead try shoehorning them into a single worldview, something suffers. My concern is that science will take the hit – and Collins's speculative arguments about divine intervention via quantum uncertainty seem dangerously poised for the punch. The Discovery Institute's concern, on the other hand, is that Christianity will take the hit. "For Christians," they write on their website, "mainstream theistic evolution raises challenges to traditional doctrines about God's providence, the Fall and the detectability of God's design in nature." For them, reconciling evolution and religious faith is simply a hopeless endeavour.

Related Links:
faithandevolution.org
[urlhttp://www.biologos.org/]biologos.org[/url]
Stephen Jay Gould and the Politics of Evolution
divine intervention via quantum uncertainty

Forget Atheism, there is a fierce battle brewing between Christians over evolution.

On one hand we have The Discovery Institute who want to replace science with religion and on the other we the Biologs foundation which sees the two as perfectly compatible.


The Discovery Institute has now made it crystal clear that they have no interest in reconciling science and religion – instead, they want their brand of religion to replace science. Which makes it all the more concerning when their new website includes resources and curricula for high-school biology classes, and promotes the pseudoscientific documentary film "Expelled" as part of their campaign to introduce non-scientific alternatives to evolution under the banner of "academic freedom".

Basically this is a dispute between those who think that "dinosaur fossils were put on earth by God in order to test our faith," and those who see no heresy in reconciling their faith with reason and scientific knowledge.

I am agnostic and I have no horse in this race ...

I do admire however individuals who are secure enough in their faith not to take affront at the light of each scientific discovery. That in itself is more indicative of said faith than the above mentioned dinosaur fossils.

I also suspect that as usual, creationists and atheists have much more in common than they are willing to concede. In this case a shared adversary in a Man who is both accepting of his spirit AND his reason.

[AshtonBlack]

Christians battle each other over evolution

First the article:

The Discovery Institute – the Seattle-based headquarters of the intelligent design movement – has just launched a new website, Faith and Evolution, which asks, can one be a Christian and accept evolution? The answer, as far as the Discovery Institute is concerned, is a resounding: No.

The new website appears to be a response to the recent launch of the BioLogos Foundation, the brainchild of geneticist Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project and rumoured Obama appointee-to-be for head of the National Institutes of Health. Along with "a team of scientists who believe in God" and some cash from the Templeton Foundation, Collins, an evangelical Christian who is also a staunch proponent of evolution, is on a crusade to convince believers that faith and science need not be at odds. He is promoting "theistic evolution" – the belief that God (the prayer-listening, proactive, personal God of Christianity) chose to create life by way of evolution.

It sounds like a nice idea, but to my mind any time you try to reconcile science and religion by rejecting Stephen Jay Gould's notion of "non-overlapping magisteria" and instead try shoehorning them into a single worldview, something suffers. My concern is that science will take the hit – and Collins's speculative arguments about divine intervention via quantum uncertainty seem dangerously poised for the punch. The Discovery Institute's concern, on the other hand, is that Christianity will take the hit. "For Christians," they write on their website, "mainstream theistic evolution raises challenges to traditional doctrines about God's providence, the Fall and the detectability of God's design in nature." For them, reconciling evolution and religious faith is simply a hopeless endeavour.

Related Links:
faithandevolution.org
[urlhttp://www.biologos.org/]biologos.org[/url]
Stephen Jay Gould and the Politics of Evolution
divine intervention via quantum uncertainty

Forget Atheism, there is a fierce battle brewing between Christians over evolution.

On one hand we have The Discovery Institute who want to replace science with religion and on the other we the Biologs foundation which sees the two as perfectly compatible.


The Discovery Institute has now made it crystal clear that they have no interest in reconciling science and religion – instead, they want their brand of religion to replace science. Which makes it all the more concerning when their new website includes resources and curricula for high-school biology classes, and promotes the pseudoscientific documentary film "Expelled" as part of their campaign to introduce non-scientific alternatives to evolution under the banner of "academic freedom".

Basically this is a dispute between those who think that "dinosaur fossils were put on earth by God in order to test our faith," and those who see no heresy in reconciling their faith with reason and scientific knowledge.

I am agnostic and I have no horse in this race ...

I do admire however individuals who are secure enough in their faith not to take affront at the light of each scientific discovery. That in itself is more indicative of said faith than the above mentioned dinosaur fossils.

I also suspect that as usual, creationists and atheists have much more in common than they are willing to concede. In this case a shared adversary in a Man who is both accepting of his spirit AND his reason.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Added link to the "title" in the OP.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... ution.html

[Bella Fortuna]

I see your *chortle* and raise you a *snork*

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I see your *chortle* and raise you a *snork*

Back at you with a smug snicker.

[Bella Fortuna]

I see your *chortle* and raise you a *snork*

Back at you with a smug snicker.

I dread to drag out the guffaw at this early stage, but if I must.....

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I see your *chortle* and raise you a *snork*

Back at you with a smug snicker.

I dread to drag out the guffaw at this early stage, but if I must.....

That would cause multiple reaction.

[AshtonBlack]

... *titter* ... *smirk* ... *chuckle* ... *get a thesaurus*