A Discovery Zone
That's why something called the Wedge Document — although horrifying to America's secularist intelligentsia — offers a message of hope for Muslims. The Wedge Document is a 1999 memorandum of the Discovery Institute (DI), the Seattle-based think tank that acts as the main proponent of ID. In this document, the Institute explains that its long-term goal is “to defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural, and political legacies.” Much of the fuss made about the Document by its opponents is absurd; it does not propose the transformation of the U.S. into a theocracy. But, as official DI documents point out, there is nothing wrong in expecting cultural impact from a scientific theory; Darwinians, after all, revel in the cultural impact of their own doctrines.By its bold challenge to Darwinian evolution — a concept that claims it is possible to be an “intellectually fulfilled atheist” — ID is indeed a wedge that can split the foundations of scientific materialism. ID presents a new perspective on science, one that is based solely on scientific evidence yet is fully compatible with faith in God. That's why William Dembski, one of its leading theorists, defines ID as a bridge between science and theology.
As the history of the cultural conflict between the modern West and Islam shows, ID can also be a bridge between these two civilizations. The first bricks of that bridge are now being laid in the Islamic world. In Turkey, the current debate over ID has attracted much attention in the Islamic media. Islamic newspapers are publishing translations of pieces by the leading figures of the ID movement, such as Michael J. Behe and Phillip E. Johnson. The Discovery Institute is praised in their news stories and depicted as the vanguard in the case for God, and President Bush's support for ID is gaining sympathy. For many decades the cultural debate in Turkey has been between secularists who quote modern Western sources and Muslims who quote traditional Islamic sources. Now, for the first time, Muslims are discovering that they share a common cause with the believers in the West. For the first time, the West appears to be the antidote to, not the source of, the materialist plague.
I’ve seen all the throw the baby out with the bath water circular arguments.
It works something like this...
All cops and criminals are exactly alike. They all carry guns and often use them. There’s not a bit of difference between them.
Same for nazi and Imperial Japanese troops...and U.S. troops....they carry guns and kill civilians....there’s virtually no difference at all other than their uniforms. Military is evil, no matter which nation it is!
Cowboys and Indians...
Christians and muslims....
sheesh if only everyone would just put down the guns, give up God, and sit around the campfire....and hit that bong one more time...
it must be some cozy ying/yang world liberals have insulated themselves in!
And yes, I understand there are some otherwise conservatives that are angry at God to the point of rejection...
peculiar...reminds me of Ron Paul...dude makes alot of sense in most of his arguments...
and then the dude gets to national defense and runs so far off the rails as to make you shake your head in disbelief!
Damn if there were just SOME way that we could extract Joe Lieberman’s understanding about national defense, give it to Ron Paul, switch that portion of their brains in fact, give Lieberman back to the hypocrats and have us a BONAFIDE conservative that is a 100% player!
Ahhhhhhh well.
Hitchens is like that....brilliant, but what notions in that noggin!
Ayn Rand...there are some exceptions to be sure.
It was enlightening for me to observe that there are some liberals....I mean HOPOELESS liberals that actually enjoy NFL football!
I mean who’d a thunk THAT!
These are the people that espouse we should stop kids from playing dodgeball in school cause a kid may get hurted!
No score keeping....can’t have one team gloating and another feeling all bad!