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Sunday, January 20, 2008

Are most Discovery Institute fellows evangelical Christians?

Recently, some commenters have urged me to address the question of whether it is true that most Discovery Institute fellows are evangelical Christians.

I suppose so, except for the ones who are Catholics, agnostics, or Moonies or something.

Apparently, most Americans (including 75% of the NON born agains) believe the central doctrine of Christianity - the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Does that affect their thinking? Well, I should hope so! (Like, if that didn't change your thinking, what would?)

While we are here, what about the fact that, according to a recent study, 78% of evolutionary biologists are pure naturalists?:
In "Evolution, Religion and Free Will" (American Scientist, Volume 95, 294ff) , Gregory W. Graffin and William B. Provine found that, of 149 eminent evolutionists polled, 78% were pure naturalists (no God) and only two were clearly theists (traditional idea of God). Some were in between these poles. The authors describe most of them as deists (some sort of divinity might have got things rolling but it is not God in any sense that Christians understand).

The authors note that the level of advocacy of any degree of theism among evolutionary biologists is the lowest measured so far in any poll of biologists' beliefs. They described the vast majority of their respondents as "metaphysical naturalists", "materialists", and "monists". In other words, these are people who are serious about their materialism and atheism.

Am I supposed to believe that the Disco fellows' beliefs are skewed because they are not naturalists/materialists but the evolutionary biologists' beliefs are NOT skewed because they are naturalists/materialists?

Aw, tell me one I can at least pretend to believe.

One way I can tell how naturalism/materialism skews the evo bio's beliefs is their inability to deal with facts in the history of life that don't mesh with their core belief that it all happened randomly.

For example,

Beefalo butts head against tree of life

Biology's big bangs - not explained by Darwinism

The Avalon explosion - another non-Darwinian event?

The pretense that nothing much happened when humans developed a mind.

What really happens in evolution, as opposed to what you learn in your Darwinism-sponsored school.

How did caterpillars start to become butterflies. Forget your Darwinism class. No one knows as yet. Hint: It probably wasn't a Darwinian process.

What use is the "molecular clock"? Not much use for keeping time, apparently, despite puffery.

What if the tape of life were replayed? Would humans result?

Tiktaalik - channelling your inner fish " ... many scientists are stuck in the primitive mode of discovering that a change occurred and declaring that "Darwin's theory explains this!" They then make up stories to show how Darwin's theory could explain it."

Earth: An accident or a launch pad for exploration of the universe?

The big bang of flowers - an "abominable mystery" - or just not Darwinian?

There are no reasonable Darwinian solutions to any of these problens or for many more that will be raised at The Design of Life site.

Who links to me?