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New BioLogos series vows to get rid of “nasty name calling” against ID?

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Science and the Bible: Five Attitudes & Approaches

New kid on the block? Yup.

In its so far failing effort to connect with the traditional Christian community, Biologos has been shuffling some folk out and bringing others in.

Recently, they made a surprisingly good choice. The latter group includes Ted Davis of Messiah University. Davis, who has started a series, has two things going for him:

1. As a historian of science (special emphasis on religion and science), he actually knows what he is talking about. He is not a physicist or biologist with a “thang” for religion and a bee in the bonnet about defending Darwin so that unbelievers may turn to Christ.

(Oh, please. When you defend Darwin and succeed – people turn to Darwin. And Christ must just adjust. This is not news. Send no releases here.)

2. He is reasonably fair-minded, and has offered a warning to Darwin’s trolls, Christian or otherwise:

One point about the “terms” of debate: many people who engage in on-line discussion of these topics take apparent glee in twisting these acronyms into dismissive alternatives, especially when they believe those who disagree with them aren’t just wrong, but stupid. Turning “ID-ists” into “IDiots” is one common example of what’s obviously just nasty name calling, and I won’t tolerate it. If you use any such terms, except to call attention to their pejorative usage, your post will disappear and you might not be back. You can find other ways to express strong disagreement with the positions of others without being childish.

Well, Davis stands a better chance of letting ID theorists explain ID (assuming that is wanted) if he enforces that rule.

He’ll probably need to enforce because, if his series takes off (as we hope), he could be inheriting a few that we have booted, now looking for a respectable squat.

Ted: The delete key is a friend, not an enemy. Chimo!

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Comments
"the traditional Christian community" - News Is there such a thing in N. America? Mexico is majority Catholic, Canada is deliberately secular (anti-USA fundamentalism), with more Roman Catholics than any individual Protestant denomination and USA, well, I'd appreciate it if you folks could please tell me what a 'traditional Christian' in the USA signifies wrt a community of capitalistic individuals - mega-churces? 'Traditional Christians' (but not YECs) are those who make up the BioLogos Foundations Board of Directors, wouldn't you say? The title of this thread is provocative. Ted Davis is not 'going on a crusade' to rid the world of 'nasty name calling against ID.' He is simply reserving the right to moderate and ban(ish) at an organisation's website in which he is now likely getting paid to contribute. I'm not an IDist and I don't like the term IDiot either. Isn't Ted simply being prudent and trying to establish the importance of a respectful communicative tone/attitude? Can't we find a common ground for language, where IDists are likewise not bashing ASA and BioLogos with 'childish' terms either?Gregory
April 4, 2012
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