:: Running from the Thought Police ::

:: Thursday, March 31, 2005 ::

Happy Trails To You...

::This post is the conclusion to the Evolution/ID Correspondence Series::

Doug the creationist is a bit upset that I called him a liar in my previous email. I don't see why - he's been effectively calling me that the entire time. He's also apparently forgotten that I called him a liar in my first email to him. (I also called him a denier of Christ and a tool of Satan in that one, too.) I think the fact that I used a bible quote to call him a liar this time caught his attention. Either that, or he was already looking for a reason not to continue. As a result, he's decided that I'm not worth his time anymore and no longer wishes to continue his correspondence.

I've got a few more thoughts on this, but I'll hash them out below. Here's his parting email.

[TheSquire],

Thank you for resending the last post. That was the only one I was missing.

At this point I need to end my part of this discussion. You have accused me of lying and I see not point in going on with this. God has given me a wonderful ministry with traveling and speaking. I am thankful and unbelievably humbled to affect, for good, thousands of souls each year. He has also given me a wonderful family of 5 and a good wife. With all that (plus tons of other things in life) time is not a commodity that I can afford to spend in this fruitless endeavor with you. I desire holiness above all. If you believe my character is such, then I really have much better things to do than be wrongfully accused. (I guess accusations are beneficial to the human species - you would argue - so you will certainly climb the scientific ladder.) He has called me to bear fruit - not to debate those who don’t want to hear. He has given me a mind to reason with and the probability of all the myriads of things required for life and species to exist as we know it (and we have just scratched the surface to be sure) - to all have occurred by random chance - is functionally and basically nil. Life as we know it (on the large scale) required multiplied millions of complex events to have occurred in sequence. If you believe that these all came about by time and chance, them so be it.

You are free to believe what you will. That is the beauty of our nation. The ‘problem’ that you mentioned with Gen 1 & 2 is so basic to first year Apologetics that I won’t even answer it. Acquire a sound apologetics book and you will see the form that Genesis 2 takes on vs. Genesis 1.

There are excellent books by very qualified people (who believe in a Designer to life) out there to answer all your questions should you desire.

I need to continue onto more fruitful endeavors.

Be well.

In His Kingdom,
Douglas

While I admit that I will miss our regular sparring, I also have to agree that the utility of our exchange has come to an end. Specifically, I think Doug ran out of things to toss at me. I'd demonstrated that his "mathematical" proof was nothing of the sort. Even though I'd distilled semesters' worth of biology into my emails, he couldn't take the time to detail his "simple" apologetic solution - though he possibly may have remembered that I'd given an acceptable Catholic interpretation and wouldn't have been swayed anyway. He also says there are excellent books, yet doesn't point me towards any - and if they're of the quality of the "Evolution Cruncher" he sent me earlier, they're not worth my time.

Or, he could just not have liked being evangelized himself and my getting all Catholic on his ass. I'll likely never know exactly why he decided to break this off now, because I'll respect his wishes and not bother him further. Unless I find some other creationist to mess with (or if one reads this series and decides to contact me) the Evolution/ID correspondence series has come to an end. (My regular readers may stop cheering now.) I've learned a lot about how crappy Intelligent Design is and how to get at IDers in ways they don't like having to deal with. I've also created a good nest of arguments to fall back on in case I have the opportunity to hash all this out with someone else. Who knows? Perhaps next time I'll be fortunate enough to run across someone actually open to the truth.

:: The Squire 10:46 PM :: email this post :: ::
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