Thoughts in a Haystack: Guessing Game

Monday, November 30, 2009

Guessing Game

Darrel Falk is at the Biologos Foundation's blog, Science and the Sacred, with an article that tries to explain how otherwise intelligent and accomplished people in the sciences can accept young-Earth creationism. How good the "explanation" is I will leave to the reader.

What interested me was his description of conversations he had with three YECs with Ph.D.s in science or related fields who Falk refused to name. Here are his descriptions of the three:

Person A ... obtained his Ph.D. in paleontology at the nation's most prestigious university with one of its most prestigious scholars.

Person B ... is well-trained in the field of population genetics and served as a professor in plant genetics at a university which has a long tradition of being the world leader in this discipline. He is also the inventor of a very important biotechnology tool.

Person C ... has a Ph.D, in the history of science from another of the world's best universities. ... [H]e eventually told us he would step away from his position in a "second," if he became convinced that is what God wanted of him [no other description of his "position" is given].

I think it is clear that Person A is Kurt Wise, who studied at Harvard under Stephen Jay Gould.

Person C has certain similarities to Stephen Meyer, who has a Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science from Cambridge, and whose "position" as director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute would be, even if indirectly described, a dead giveaway. On the other hand, I have never heard that he is a YEC.

Person B I don't know but, annoyingly, I remember recently seeing a creationist described with similar credentials.

Anyway, if anyone has any further or alternative guesses, that's what the comment section is for.
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Link - Posted by John Pieret @ 9:57 PM

Comments:

I agree with you on A & C. B is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Sanford

# posted by

John Lynch : 1:18 AM

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# posted by

John Lynch : 1:24 AM

Yeah Sanford for B. But Stephen Meyer is pretty much on record as an old-earther AFAIK -- e.g. that is assumed throughout his "Signature in the Cell" book -- and IIRC he said so in the Kansas hearings (online at talkorigins), after squirming awhile to avoid the question.

# posted by

NickM : 3:27 AM

Agreed Nick. I'm thinking that it is Micheal Newton Keas. Oklahoma is a good PhD program for history of sci.

# posted by

John Lynch : 3:44 AM

Actually C could just be Paul Nelson plus an accidental confusion between philosophy of science and history of science. He went to University of Chicago, which does qualify as a top university:

====
Person C is another young earth creationist with very strong credentials. He has a Ph.D, in the history of science from another of the world's best universities. "C" was one of about 16 persons at a small one-day meeting I attended in Chicago in July 2007.
====

...Falk even met person C in Chicago...not sure what the meeting was, though...some sort of theistic evolutionist/creationist exchange of views session?

# posted by

NickM : 3:50 AM

Sanford sounds like the person I had seen something about (there was a connection with Cornell as well, I think).

I think Nick may be right about Nelson, as he's on record as a YEC.

# posted by

John Pieret : 7:23 AM

For C: Terry Mortensen? He's with AiG, so definitely a YEC. However, I don't know if Coventry would be considered a world-class school (I'd never heard of it until I heard of Mortensen, post-CreoZerg), so maybe not. (I mean, good creationists would never inflate their credentials, would they?)

# posted by

Eamon Knight : 9:58 AM

thanks for this nice post 111213

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