Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

An Hour Sir, Please?

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

Marvin Olasky, in an article at Townhall.com, makes a simple request: that Dr. Francis Collins, former leader of the Human Genome Project and President Obama’s recent nominee to direct the National Institutes of Health, come to King’s College in the Empire State Building and spend an hour discussing Darwinism and ID with Dr. Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute. Mr. Olasky states,

What I and many others need help with is the science. I’ll put it simply and personally: I like Collins and find him convincing as he attacks ID. But when I hear Steve Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell, a major new book published by HarperCollins and reviewed positively by many scientists, expound the flaws in Darwinism, I find him utterly convincing.

I don’t understand the science well enough to ask Collins intelligent follow-up questions, so I’d love to see a discussion between Collins and Meyer. Earlier this year I asked Collins personally if he’d come to The King’s College in the Empire State Building sometime and spend an hour before faculty and students discussing the issues with Meyer: We’d tape it and put excerpts in WORLD. Collins said no, and he has since said no to other entreaties.

I still want to hear two intelligent, influential guys discussing design, so I’m asking Collins publicly: Please, sir, busy senators and governors and major authors are coming to King’s these days, and I suspect you too will be coming to Manhattan sometime. Whenever you do, can you spare an hour?

Can Dr. Collins spare an hour? What would he have to lose in an honest discussion about Darwinism and ID with Dr. Meyer if his position is tenable? Dr. Collins is obviously interested in the subject, to the point that he has written a book, The Language of God, and instituted a website called Biologos furthering his belief in theistic evolution. Surely he can spare one hour and grant Olasky’s request?

Comments
I have a better idea: Why not a public dialogue between Paul Nelson and Michael Behe on the question of common descent?fbeckwith
August 1, 2009
August
08
Aug
1
01
2009
02:12 PM
2
02
12
PM
PDT
Off course Meyer refuses. Marvin Olasky has used Worldmagazine has a Republican party campaign tool over the last ten years, so don't expect an honest debate to take place at the King's college.coloredopinions
July 30, 2009
July
07
Jul
30
30
2009
01:07 AM
1
01
07
AM
PDT
I agree, Collins has far too much to lose in the deal and I very well suppose he is much more concerned with his "rock star" reputation than with what the actual truth of the science is...Shame,,, and to think scientists like Collins use to be my heros when I was growing up. Well hold on a minute,,,seeing the beating Michael Behe has taken for sticking to the truth he has found, no matter what was slandered against him, and the unflinching resolve to which he pursued even greater understanding of "the Edge of Evolution",,I still do have a few heros left in science.bornagain77
July 26, 2009
July
07
Jul
26
26
2009
06:14 PM
6
06
14
PM
PDT
comment #1 from Gil, Why not make it a fair(maybe...maybe not so much I suppose) fight and invite Francis Beckwith to defend his version of theistic evolution [since he finds the need to distance from ID]. I say fair because a PhD in philosophy of science should be able to beat a PhD in genetics on the subject easily.PhilosophyFan
July 26, 2009
July
07
Jul
26
26
2009
05:07 PM
5
05
07
PM
PDT
What motivation does Collins have to do this? He's busy enjoying his new appointment as head of the NIH, an appointment he would never have gotten if he doubted Darwinism. Maybe we could offer to pay his pension if he gets fired for changing his mind?tragic mishap
July 26, 2009
July
07
Jul
26
26
2009
08:28 AM
8
08
28
AM
PDT
Collins knows he'd be taken out to the shed. At this point Meyers is a bull in a china shop and no one can stop him. You can believe his new book will be more peer reviewed than anything else.lamarck
July 25, 2009
July
07
Jul
25
25
2009
08:57 PM
8
08
57
PM
PDT
I'll personally get on the horn and raise the cash to pay for everything. I will also see that it is produced and syndicated if that is what they copyright owners wish.Upright BiPed
July 25, 2009
July
07
Jul
25
25
2009
08:07 PM
8
08
07
PM
PDT
Slightly off topic, but I received the latest issue of The New Yorker today, and on page 7 who do I see but Dr Dr Collins himself appearing in a full-page ad for Rock Stars of Science. I like the picture of him posing with Joe Perry---I'm sure they're real tight. LOL. Turns out Collins actually does play guitar, though. He even has a double-helix inlay on his fretboard. Anyway, it looks like he has plenty of time to hang out with evos and washed-up musicians. Why can't he set aside half a day to meet with Dr Meyer?herb
July 25, 2009
July
07
Jul
25
25
2009
06:35 PM
6
06
35
PM
PDT
Surely he [Francis Collins] can spare one hour and grant Olasky’s request? No, he can't spare that hour, because Meyer would demolish Collins once Collins attempted to defend the Darwinian mechanism as the source of information and complex, functionally integrated information-processing machinery in living systems. Collins would then be in a position of attempting to defend the thesis that God designed and purposed life and human existence through a process that does not involve design or purpose, at which point he would lose all credibility as both a scientist and as a Christian. In addition, Collins undoubtedly knows that if he were to express even a modicum of dissent from chance-and-necessity Darwinian orthodoxy, his career would be mercilessly and immediately terminated. GilDodgen
July 25, 2009
July
07
Jul
25
25
2009
03:58 PM
3
03
58
PM
PDT

Leave a Reply