President of Ball State University
The case for the naturalistic interpretation of the origin
of life is weakened, not strengthened, by your attempt to censor that body of
evidence which purports to favor Intelligent Design (specifically with respect
to physics professor Dr. Eric Hedin’s discussion of the relevant issues in his
class room). The clash of ideas ought to
be the hallmark of academic inquiry. Tragically, by your promotion of the opposite,
higher education is is made into a mockery.
What are you afraid of? There is
not the slightest intellectual justification for suppressing the free exchange
of ideas. Truth instead is laid bare in
the face of exposure to serious public challenge. In the end the truth will be exposed
regarding the status of the ID interpretation of the scientific facts. The
simple matter is that scientific naturalism is in exactly the same boat. You are not advancing the outcome of the
inquiry at hand, but to the contrary hindering it. It is just as intellectually absurd for “academics”
to censor ID as it is for a forensic doctor to decide, in advance of the
investigation of a dead body lying at the end of an alley with two small holes
in the skull and two bullet cases on the ground, that only natural causes will
be considered.
The common charge that ID contradicts science is utterly
false. Since science is defined as the
study of material operations within material
systems, ID’s appeal to an Intelligence that (who) transcends such systems involves no violation of scientific rules for
the reason that, by definition, it has nothing whatever to do with operations science. As neo-Darwinist Stephen Jay Gould (obviously
no sympathizer of ID) concedes, “Science
simply cannot adjudicate (by its legitimate methods) the issue of God’s possible superintendence
of nature.” (“Impeaching a Self-Appointed Judge.” Scientific
American. (July 1992)).
Sincerely,
Rev. Gary Jensen, Zion Lutheran Church
Snohomish, Washington 98290
No comments:
Post a Comment