But I take the main squabble prompting this thread - not to be about specific content of 'theologies' - but about preventing -at all cost- the intentional further muddying of Language. (A lesser form is that of advertising-lies, but not a Lot-less..)
There is a pattern - particularly in that perverse mixture of politics and religiosity rampant in the US - of attempted redefinitions of important words. Disingenuous is too kind a word to use, re the premeditated fabrication of such a monster phrase as,
Creation Science.Your comment,
I find it unreasonable that the conclusion of "special creation may have occurred" is excluded from the list of possibilities.
suggests that you might deem it permissible to use this phrase, defensibly.
Simply, I aver: it is indefensible; it is Language Murder.
As Ben observes, a ways up the threads - the '6000 year' guesstimate of "the age of the earth" appears to have originated with one particular English cleric - and latched onto since. But it matters not whether it is 6K or some other figure: the method of arrival is nothing whatsoever to do with the "methods of science".
Ergo: this is not a matter of whether it is "good science" or "flawed science" having been done. Nor is metaphysics -distinct from religious connotation- as may be revelatory to some - "science"; it, as with all 'belief' through internal ruminations: has nothing whatsoever to do with application of the scientific method of observation, experiment, demonstration and debate (over the possible significance). 'CS' is dogma, pure and simple.
Creationists, intending to pollute the very meaning of the word 'science', merit no accommodation - only do they merit the clearest explanation of why their assertion demands opposition by all honest persons, whatever their personal religious attitudes.
Religion, for some - seeks to construct a Why of existence. Science merely seeks to determine the How of material processes observable by anyone. Never the twain shall meet, except in fantasy. Or demagoguery.
Render unto Caesar.
Confucious was correct re the consequences of "language not being correct" - a quote I posted long ago. We see those consequences daily: barricades worth manning.
Cheers,
I.
Ashton you know me better than that.
