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To: Choose Ye This Day
"I am skeptical of claims for the ability of [How some scientific theory is supposed to work] to account for [whatever the theory concerns]. Careful examination of the evidence for [the theory in question] should be encouraged."

Scepticism is the lifeblood of science. Every scientist should be able to sign the above about every theory. The problem is that laymen don't understand that and equate scepticism with near-rejection. And while we are swapping lists of scientists, here is a much longer one of scientists who unequivocally reject ID and creationism, all of whose names are Steve. How many Steve's are there on your list?

76 posted on 02/12/2005 9:10:31 AM PST by Thatcherite (Conservative and Biblical Literalist are not synonymous)
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To: Thatcherite
I picked one ofChoose Ye's learned professors at random(Michael Atchison), googled him, and found this nugget.

While I was identifying myself as a Christian in Philadelphia, a Biochemist named Michael Behe at Lehigh University was writing a book on evolution. As a Biochemist, Behe found the evidence for Darwinian evolution to be very thin. In fact, when he looked at the cell from a biochemical perspective, he believed there was evidence of intelligent design. Behe sent his completed manuscript to The Free Press publishers for consideration. The editor was not certain that this manuscript was a good risk for publication. There were clearly theological issues at hand, and he was under the impression that these issues would be poorly received by the scientific community. If the tenets of Darwinian evolution were completely accepted by science, who would be interested in buying the book?

The editor shared his concerns with his wife. His wife was a student in my class. She advised her husband to give me a call. So, unaware of all this, I received a phone call from the publisher in New York. We spent approximately 10 minutes on the phone. After hearing a description of the work, I suggested that the editor should seriously consider publishing the manuscript. I told him that the origin of life issue was still up in the air. It sounded like this Behe fellow might have some good ideas, although I could not be certain since I had never seen the manuscript. We hung up and I never thought about it again. At least until two years later.

After some time Behe's book, Darwin's Black Box (The Free Press, 1996) was published. It became an instant best-seller and was widely acclaimed in the news media. It is currently in its 15th printing and over 40,000 copies have been sold. I heard about it, but could not remember if this was the same book that I received the call about from the publisher. Could it be? In November 1998, I finally met Michael Behe when he visited Penn for a Faculty Outreach talk. He told me that yes, indeed, it was his book that the publisher called me about. In fact, he said my comments were the deciding factor in convincing the publisher to go ahead with the book. Interesting, I thought.

Google doesn't reveal whether Atchison has ever done or published any reasearch.

96 posted on 02/13/2005 10:15:09 AM PST by js1138
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