Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education

Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education | Phillip E. Johnson | Please be realistic about science.

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Reason in the Bala...

	Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education Phillip E. Johnson InterVarsity Press, 1998 - 245 pages average customer review:based on 46 reviews view larger image
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A fair audit of science

The book quite convincingly makes the case for an outside audit of the existing science establishment. It explains what every successful business knows about oversight and accountability but the publicly funded scientific community seems to have forgotten.

Please be realistic about science.

A friend of mine works for an petrochemical exploration company. They specialize in determining potential locations of oil deposits by drilling cores into layers of sedimentary deposits and looking at the evolutionary sequences of micro-fossils which were accumulated millions of years ago on ancient sea-floors. Oil (and coal) deposits formed when decaying plant matter became buried under sediments and underwent subsequent chemical alteration. The plant material requires millions of years to be converted into oil or coal. (They're called fossil fuel for a reason, you know.) When you analyze a drill core sample, and if you find particular micro-fossils of species that only lived during a certain geological age that corresponds to the age when oil deposits formed, then you might be in an area where oil can be found. Her company gets contacts from huge oil companies to help them make multi-billion dollar decisions on where to drill for oil based partly on the information obtained by looking at micro-fossils. Oil companies have been doing this for decades. Don't believe me. Find out for yourself. Search the internet for websites about oil exploration micropaleontology. Next time you fill your tank, consider the role evolution played in both the creation and the discovery of the gas you're pumping into your car. I own stock in the company my friend works for and have made some nice returns on it.

I also have a relative who works for a medical research institute that uses DNA analysis to find out how viruses and genetic defects cause disease. He's working on therapies for several types of cancer. They use genetic mutations and evolutionary histories of diseases to understand how cells, viruses and diseases operate. They've already had success with some drugs and I've made money off of a drug company's stock as a result. The science is way over my head. However, based on the logic of this book, you have to conclude that genetic mutations can't be studied with any certainty because it seems they can occur only if and when God wants them to. I don't know how I'll be able to break it to him but I guess someone will have to tell him that his research is simply a waste of time. I know that seems at odds with the fact I've made money off the stock market . . . but Phillip Johnson wants me to have an open mind after all, and, let's face it, he's so much smarter than these people.

I can't imagine how insulting it must be to intelligent, dedicated, highly educated, hard working, honest, professional people like these, who use the principles of evolution in their day to day work, in billion dollar industries, for them to hear people say that evolution didn't happen or that it is just an ideology. (I should sell the stock in these companies soon, before they crash when word gets out that evolution is a myth.) Folks, there is a tremendous amount of information supporting evolution. In all honesty, it is downright silly to contend at this point that living things have not evolved over the eons. It is simply a fact of life. It is not a religious belief or an opinion. I urge you to truly inform yourselves about evolution from sources other than creationists or IDers or whatever they call themselves. Look at the depth and detail of information supporting evolution. There are many websites about it. Check them out. Look at some professional research journals on subjects related to biology, geology, palenotology, etc. Ask yourself, "Can this tremendous amount of detailed information accumulated by researchers for hundreds of years really be fake or incorrect?" "Are all the thousands of highly intelligent, highly educated people around the world who are currently conducting research on evolution, as well as those using it in their daily work, all wrong?" "Would scientists at the most prestigious universities in the world really deliberately lie about this?" "Why would they risk being caught in a lie and ruin their professional careers?" Please, be realistic about science. And, by the way, you can be Christian and fully accept evolution. I do. So do the friend and relative I mentioned above. Of course, I guess we're just closed-minded.

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