Like Paul Nelson did earlier in the series, I will briefly restate and number the main questions and address them in chronological order as they appear in Hans Madueme’s redirect. Why Me? Question 1: Am I the exception that proves the rule? Why did I, as a former atheist and a naturalist, become convinced of…

  “The future is known. It is the past that keeps changing.” Thank you, Hans, for your thoughtful Redirect. I think these questions further the conversation. If I interpret them correctly, your basic concerns are as follows: 1) Is the neo-Darwinian model (NDM) really being challenged, or simply supplemented? 2) Do these new developments in…

My main point in my original essay was not that science has not been contaminated by taste, prejudices, and motivations. Of course it has been. My main point was that when judging a scientific theory, when debating its alternatives, when deciding which scientific interpretation is better, when demolishing bad theories, motivation is not a scientific…

In his exegesis of Romans 7:17, Italian reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) argues that with regard to sin, Aristotelian anthropology conflicts with the understanding of humanity found in Paul’s writings. Whereas Aristotle taught that the most important parts of the human mind innately tend to the good, Vermigli finds that Paul teaches that sin affects…

The nature of the created will was a constant point of conflict during the sixteenth century, both between the reformers and their Catholic opponents. Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) conflict with Erasmus over the bondage of the will was one of the defining debates of the early Reformation. As can be seen in his exegesis of Galatians,…

Let me focus on your main questions, which I have numbered for ease of reference: Is it true that motives are completely irrelevant? Why do scientists so strongly disagree on the central claims of the ID movement? How do you define the scientific theory of ID? We’ll start with (1), then turn to (2) and…

In working through the Pauline corpus, the reformers constantly wrestled with Paul’s emphasis on the nature of the fallen body, its need for redemption, and the implications of this for those living between Christ’s first and second comings. Catholic pastor Johann Wild (1495-1554) finds much to discuss as Paul speaks of offering the body as…

In a symposium with five scholars, one might expect them to bring different, sometimes divergent, perspectives to the focal question: If ID science is not religiously motivated, why hasn’t it gained traction among mainstream scientists? The role of the moderator would then be to bring unity to the different voices (in addition to moving the…

First, there are two general problems with this somewhat loaded question: 1.) The claim that ID science has not gained traction among mainstream scientists is false: In the past few years since I became involved with the ID movement, I have witnessed a significant expansion of interest in ID theory among scientists around the world,…

The rise of the Carolingian Empire (ca. 800–888 AD) witnessed an abundance of theological and philosophical inquiry and controversy, not least because the relative political stability made connections across geographical regions easier, along with a widespread effort by its authorities to promote educational and religious reforms and thus to develop greater uniformity in Christian thought…

Suppose you picked up a magazine at the dentist’s office and read the following phrase: “When coupled with the appropriate interpreters, multiple meanings and functions are programmed into the same sequence of configurable switch-settings. This additional layer of Ontological Prescriptive Information (PIo) purposely slows or speeds up the translation decoding process within the ribosome.” Aside…

The opposition between God and humanity’s corruption is a common theme in Paul’s anthropology, and so it is unsurprising that it becomes central to the anthropologies of many of the reformers as well. In his commentary on Romans 8, Lutheran Johannes Brenz (1499-1570) uses the illustration of a wolf among sheep to demonstrate the enmity…