Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Naturalism: A Theory in Crisis?

From Chad MacIntosh.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Um, didn't you mean to link to this article?

Ron said...

Good article. I mean the one that you intended to post. I didn't find anything new there though.

Dr. Reppert,

Btw, I reviewed your book here: http://ronsbookcorner.blogspot.com/

Edwardtbabinski said...

The author of the piece seems to have based his conclusions on a host of creationist and I.D.ist quote-mined citations. I'd suggest going to Talk Origins Archive and looking up each quotation there and note the comments.

Michael Denton now accepts that there is plenty of evidence in favor of common ancestry. See the review of his latest book at a website run by a profession biologist, a site titled, "Was Darwin Wrong?"

I suggest the author study the evidence for molecular evolution. Even Behe,.a premier I.Dist, and one of the few I.D.ists with an actual advanced biology degree, admits the evidence is strong for common ancestry. And there are plenty of "leftovers" in the genome and chromosomes that point to changes not being "designed" in any clean or neat fashion. There is evidence of entire genomes being duplicated at least three times along the line from fish to humans, and then that genomes was slowly whittled down over time.

And where in supernaturalism do you place mass extinctions in the geological past? Was the Designer shaking their Etch-i-Sketch?

On the religious side, supernaturalism doesn't appear to be doing so well, especially of the "holy book" variety. I'd suggest some works by Karen Armstrong, such as A SHORT HISTORY OF MYTH, and, THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION. As well as Mary Roach's book, SPOOK: SCIENCE TACKLES THE SUPERNATURAL.

And then there's the growing numbers of Christian philosophers who accept mind-body monism.