I went to the annual Discovery Institute conference here in Dallas. Ben Carson compared evolution to a hurricane passing through a junkyard and creating a 747.
The purpose of the conference was to argue that Darwinism undermined human rights as outlined in the Declaration of Independence. John West interviewed Carson.
Wayne Grudem as the key theologian in the Theistic Evolution book opposing evolutionary creationism claimed for multiple biblical reasons EC was off course. The book was deeply connected to ID leadership.
About the ID movement…..
…..what do you think is its present state in terms of visibility given the media spotlight on it in the 2000s?
….is BioLogos engaged with the leadership of the movement? Is that dialogue getting harder to sustain in this season of deepening political polarization?
Is this post really 6 hours old, or was it trapped in a long-forgotten moderation queue for 30 years?
I wasn’t aware that evolutionary biology made Americans unhappy by taxing, imprisoning, transporting and even killing them, while preventing any uprising or revolution.
Or was it just the hackneyed sophistry that the DoI says human rights come from a creator so if there wasn’t one human rights don’t exist?
Dropping faster than Trillian’s probability curve.
What’s at Stake is not just America but the Whole Wide World. Is the World of THE GREATER GOOD or is Freedom also allowing the deception of what is not good to be Okay. My observation is the Moraless taking(Reward) of Money without any good works. The list is large: Gambling, Stock Market(no real investment), High paid Sports Players and Actors, the oldest profession of Prostitution, and whatever you may see.
To echo Roy, it seems the Discovery Institute has not changed that much. It is interesting that it is trying to hang on the coattails of the Christian Nationalism movement celebrating American exceptionalism by linking to the Declaration of Independence.
As far as I know, there is not a lot of conversation between DI and Biologos. It is sort of hard to have a meaningful dialogue with an organization whose sole purpose seems to be attacking you.
They had their 15 minutes of fame. The issue will resurface periodically as these things do, but lacking a positive and distinguishable theoretic of design, continuously making promises of game changing advances being just around the corner, and relying on anti-evolutionary tropes is just a dead end.
The YEC community sussed out their vacuousness long ago. You can’t be a ‘big tent’ that uncritically accepts any position, will not engage and critically evaluate these, and hope to progress a ‘scientific’ theoretic.
‘Baraminology’ is just ‘Biblical kinds’ tarted up to appear respectable, like the Design Center was always just ‘anti-evolution’ sentiment gussied up as a positive mode of academica inquiry.
Overall not that visible, but with notable exceptions. For instance, Christianity Today has a new editor-in-chief: Marvin Olasky, a Discovery Institute senior fellow. That’s quite a dramatic change from Daniel Harrell, who held the post from 2020–21, though apparently Olasky was highly recommended by the last editor-in-chief, Russell Moore:
If you’re wondering if Olasky would use his new position to spread ID-styled rhetoric to a wider audience – yes, yes he would:
He probably means the 2005 Dover trial where the ID experts were shown to be either chickens or ostriches, the ID supporters were exposed as conspiratorial liars, and ID was confirmed to be creationism in disguise.
And having all the genetic material to produce 8 million species of just animalia in 4000-6000 years, was contained in the Animal Kind on a boat only 510 feet long, is more plausible?
And before that we happily called out group of former atheists and agnostics and doubters who had come theists, primarily Christian, due to studying science an “intelligent design” club.
This title from DI, “America at Stake,” worries me now more than I used; is the reason for arguing a point whether our culture, and specifically (maybe nation centric), ours, rather than any one else’s, is what matters–not truth?
I am guilty of that feeling, too; but I am hoping God will help me not get all worried about “my” culture or nation. Of course, no one posting here is advocating that–but it is interesting to me what my worries can be.
It is very hard to have an honest dialogue with people who hold to a false premise. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are intentionally lying - they might truly believe what they say. The result is they do not engage in any discussion where serious criticism is encouraged.
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Gerhard
(Gerhard Nebe-von Caron, formerly "Marvin", Sceptic Christian)
20
2012: Discovery Institute publicly defends Carson’s anti‑Darwinian stance and promotes him as an example of a scientist dissenting from evolutionary theory
so you are a bit off track
The discrepancy between reality and Christianity is far from unique to the ID movement but it was interesting to ask AI why the problem is so prevalent in the US. Looks like Pill did not get my ironic use of the word Magachurch Intelligent Design and YEC in the USA
Would be keen to find out what answer you get on the question I asked at the end:
”So if any user would ask you the open question of how to interpret the myth of the fall in Genesis and how to interpret the declaration that “if you eat from the tree of knowledge you will die”, what is your answer?”
