essay
A Theology of and for Evolution I urge that far from the epic of evolution being a threat to Christian theology, it is a stimulus to and a basis for a more encompassing and enriched understanding of the interrelations of God, humanity, and nature. An argument for the existence of God in Anglo-Saxon “physico-theology” (an…
Since my name and views were often engaged in Bill Dembski’s Metaviews #098 essay, here are a few comments and clarifications as part of the continuing conversation. For convenience I will use Bill’s numbering system for my comments on selected segments of his essay. 1. Cards on the Table Bill, I’m glad to see this…
1. Cards on the Table In the movie Dream Team starring Michael Keaton, Keaton plays a psychiatric patient who must feign sanity to save his psychiatrist from being murdered. In protesting his sanity, Keaton informs twoNewYorkCity policemen that he doesn’t wear women’s clothing, that he’s never danced aroundTimes Square naked, and that he doesn’t talk…
Excerpt from an essay by Paul C.W. Davies, “Biological Determinism, Information Theory, and the Origin of Life,” which appears in Many Worlds, edited by Steven Dick, Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2000. Philosophical and Theological Implications The philosophical and theological implications of the competing scenarios for the origin of life are starkly different and bear strongly…
Metaviews 095. 2000.11.01. Approximately 1773 words. Below is another installment from the Many Worlds book (see Metaviews 092). The chapter excerpt below is from Christian de Duve, who shared the1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for pioneering work oncell structure and function. De Duve has devoted his career tostudying the biochemistry of life. A…
In light of remarks on the META list that indicate a significantmisunderstanding of the recent events surrounding the Polanyi Center atBaylor University, most particularly the removal of Dr. Dembski as itsdirector, I think it is important to clarify the significance of what hashappened. Dr. Dembski was not removed from the directorship for any academic failure.Baylor…
STATEMENT OF THE CRANACH INSTITUTEPROTESTING THE REMOVAL OF WILLIAM DEMBSKIAS DIRECTOR OF THE MICHAEL POLANYI CENTERAT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY The Cranach Institute wishes to express its dismay at the decision to removeWilliam Dembski as Director of the Michael Polanyi Center (Metanews,10/19/2000). Shortly before this announcement, we learned that thecommittee appointed to evaluate the status of the…
I am delighted that the organizers of the “Future Visions” Conference chose to include a session on “Complementary Ways Of Knowing.” and I was honored to be part of it. I think that the epistemological issues are not only critical to the science/religion dialogue, but also to the resolution of the postmodern predicament and…
Contemporary physics posits an all-pervasive energetic field called “quantum vacuum energy,” or zero-point energy, a random, ambient fluctuating energy that exists even in so-called empty space.
Several recent thought-provoking papers from the Future Visions group have inspired me to offer some thoughts from a "female perspective". As an observational astronomer and a Christian, I found myself in consonance with many views expressed in Bernard Haisch’s contribution "Freeing the Scientific Imagination from Fundamentalist Scientism" (although I disagree that strident debunking is exclusively…