I reported the other day that William Dembski is leaving the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville to take a position closer to his home in Waco, Texas. Now comes word that he is being replaced at SBTS by Kurt Wise, a young earth creationist geologist. It's certainly interesting that they would replace an ID advocate with a young earth creationist, given IDers claim that ID has nothing to do with creationism. Still, Wise is probably a step up. He's a good bit more honest than Dembski in that he won't distort the evidence or his own position to get out of embarrassing difficulties.
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William Dembski is changing jobs. For a year, he's been teaching in Louisville (while commuting from Waco) at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; now he's going to be closer to home with a position at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth:
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Plus, Wise studied under SJ Gould! That has to be worth something! :p
"Young-earth geologist" sound to me suspiciously like an oxymoron.
Chris Heard wrote:
Well, there are a few of them, of which Wise is easily the smartest, most interesting and most honest. Among us anti-creationists, you'll find that Wise is pretty widely respected for his honesty. Unlike virtually every other YEC, he isn't willing to distort the evidence. He will admit frankly that he believes the earth to be young solely because of the Bible and that the evidence, at this point, is squarely against it. He also recognizes that if his position is to be taken seriously, they have to be develop a young earth model that explains the data better than conventional geology and he is working on such a model. It won't succeed, of course, but I respect the fact that he doesn't bend the standards of scientific legitimacy in order to achieve his theological goals.
Wise may not distort the evidence but he has acknowledged that if faced with conflicting Biblical "evidence" and scientific evidence, he will go with the Biblical "evidence." In my view, that makes him something less than a "real" scientist.
For Wise to accept that he is wrong means having to accept that the Bible is wrong. And since he is convinced the Bible is the Word of God it means having to accept that God, who is all knowing, is wrong. The possibility that the Bible is not the Word of God is, of course, unacceptable.
And let me point out that you accept that the Bible is not The Word of God, and I accept that the Bible is not The Word of God, but Wise does not accept that the Bible is not The Word of God. So any protests in that direction are quite besides the point.