Reader Letter: "Creationist Wolf in Cheap Clothing"
Reader Letter - 2005-08-06 -- It is hilarious that Dan Barker, author of “Creationist Wolf in Cheap Clothing,” published on August 5, 2005, claims to be co-president of a group that calls itself the “Freedom From Religion Foundation,” while at the same time referring to the “fact of evolution” in his commentary. No one can possibly consider the theory of evolution to be fact unless he is an extremely religious zealot himself, for one has to have a mystical faith in naturalism that greatly exceeds the Biblical faith of an evangelical Christian to believe that life just happened one day as a random fluke event of time and material and that all the species developed from that day forth (“in the beginning was stuff and time, and stuff and time created amoeba and amoeba and time created …’”). Barker ignores the fact that it is mathematically impossible for even the simplest forms of life to spring forth from elements, even if the universe is infinitely old, which, obviously, it is not.
I must challenge one patently false statement, among several in Barker’s commentary. When he says, “its proponents have never
had an article published on the topic in any peer-reviewed scientific journal,” he is either intentionally lying or he is shamefully
ignorant of his topic. Michael Behe, professor of biochemistry at Lehigh, has published peer reviewed articles on intelligent design
in scientific journals and other publications, for example:
Behe, M.J. 2002. The challenge of irreducible complexity. Natural History 111, 74.
For a more reasoned review of President Bush’s modest and intelligent response regarding intelligent design, see William Dembski’s statement at: http://www.designinference.com/documents/2005.08.Commending_President_Bush.pdf
Lewis Toms
Springfield, Virginia
| Editors Note: A rather thorough discussion of the scientific "merits" of intelligent design can be found in
"Debate Over Intelligent Design" 2005-08-05 with Michael Behe and Lawrence Krauss from PBS Newshour.
William Dembski, a mathematician and philosopher, is one of the leaders of intelligent design creationism. In depth critiques of his work in the field are available in the critique section devoted to Dembski at Internet Infidels. Tom in Ohio added to the author: "Your first sentence shows your shallow defense. "I feel your pain" as Clinton would say and I enjoy it." |