Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Paper on Theistic Evolution & ID published by Bethinking.org
After a lot of hard work and a stringent review process (involving readers on both sides of the Atlantic and several revised drafts) www.bethinking.org, the excellent apologetics website of the 'Universites and Colleges Christian Fellowship' (UCCF), have just published my new article: 'Theistic Evolution & Intelligent Design in Dialogue'.
This article is an invited response to a paper critical of ID, also published by bethinking.org. The paper in question was written by Dr. Denis Alexander, a Christian biologist at Cambridge University, who is a theistic evolutionist.
I think bethinking.org are to be applauded for showing that Christian accademics hold a number of different views on the issue of origins, and that this debate can be carried out in a manner that doesn't generate more heat than light.
While the character of Adam in my paper clearly stands in for Dr. Alexander, I wanted to make it clear by the use of a different name that I was responding to Christians who hold views similar to Dr. Alexander's, rather than specifically to Dr. Alexander himself. After all, Alexander might well make different points and responses than those made by Adam. Hence, I would only claim that Adam repsesents Alexander where I reference Alexander's published views. I was also careful not to give the characters representing ID an easy victory at the close of the paper, which would have been unrealitic. Even if you find yourself siding with Tim and Cath against Adam in my dialogue, you should follow Adam's example and simply decide to think matters through at greater length and in greater detail. Knee-jerk reactions, whether for or againt ID, should be avoided. I personally spent over a year reading and thinking about ID before deciding that it was a better position than theistic evolution.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Alexander in person (at a conference in Poland two years ago), and we talked briefly about intelligent design theory. As you might guess, he was not impressed, and he had some well-meaning concerns about how ID might negatively impact Christian evangelism. As you might also guess, Denis did not change my viewpoint on ID. Despite our disagreement, we continue to embrace each other as fellow Christians. As with all such matters, the trick is to disagree withut being disagreeable. I hope my paper for bethinking.com reflects this spirit of cordial disagreement.
You can read Dr. Alexander's paper, 'Created or Evolved? Hot Issues for the 21st Century' @
http://www.bethinking.org/resource.php?ID=193&TopicID=2&CategoryID=1
You can read my paper, 'Theistic Evolution & Intelligent Design in Dialogue' @ http://www.bethinking.org/resource.php?ID=216&TopicID=2&CategoryID=1
This article is an invited response to a paper critical of ID, also published by bethinking.org. The paper in question was written by Dr. Denis Alexander, a Christian biologist at Cambridge University, who is a theistic evolutionist.
I think bethinking.org are to be applauded for showing that Christian accademics hold a number of different views on the issue of origins, and that this debate can be carried out in a manner that doesn't generate more heat than light.
While the character of Adam in my paper clearly stands in for Dr. Alexander, I wanted to make it clear by the use of a different name that I was responding to Christians who hold views similar to Dr. Alexander's, rather than specifically to Dr. Alexander himself. After all, Alexander might well make different points and responses than those made by Adam. Hence, I would only claim that Adam repsesents Alexander where I reference Alexander's published views. I was also careful not to give the characters representing ID an easy victory at the close of the paper, which would have been unrealitic. Even if you find yourself siding with Tim and Cath against Adam in my dialogue, you should follow Adam's example and simply decide to think matters through at greater length and in greater detail. Knee-jerk reactions, whether for or againt ID, should be avoided. I personally spent over a year reading and thinking about ID before deciding that it was a better position than theistic evolution.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Alexander in person (at a conference in Poland two years ago), and we talked briefly about intelligent design theory. As you might guess, he was not impressed, and he had some well-meaning concerns about how ID might negatively impact Christian evangelism. As you might also guess, Denis did not change my viewpoint on ID. Despite our disagreement, we continue to embrace each other as fellow Christians. As with all such matters, the trick is to disagree withut being disagreeable. I hope my paper for bethinking.com reflects this spirit of cordial disagreement.
You can read Dr. Alexander's paper, 'Created or Evolved? Hot Issues for the 21st Century' @
http://www.bethinking.org/resource.php?ID=193&TopicID=2&CategoryID=1
You can read my paper, 'Theistic Evolution & Intelligent Design in Dialogue' @ http://www.bethinking.org/resource.php?ID=216&TopicID=2&CategoryID=1
