05.28.09
Obama Loves Creationists (?!?)
President Obama is reportedly considering creationist Francis Collins as head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Words fail me.
Evaluating Christianity
Considering Christian apologetics from an atheist's perspective.
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Ben said,
May 29, 2009 at 2:22 am
Isn’t he an OEC? Geez man, didn’t he head the human genome project? I think he’s qualified. It’s so frustrating when you have FOX news ranting about one half of Obama’s decisions and people on my “team” ranting on the other half of Obama’s decisions and not a god damn soul seems to know what bi-partisanship and compromise actually entail. But w/e.
Ben
Ben said,
May 29, 2009 at 9:54 am
Josh,
Well technically anything including God’s activity is a version of creationism, but EC could stand to be a little more specific especially in context.
Ben
Josh said,
May 29, 2009 at 9:55 am
Francis Collins is not a creationist. He’s a theistic evolutionist. Yes, he’s crazy, but you could at least label the crazy correctly.
James F. McGrath said,
May 29, 2009 at 3:24 pm
All the points made echo my own concerns about this post. While “creationist” can in theory mean “anyone who believes in some form of creation”, it usually denotes positions like young-earth creationism and intelligent design’s old-earth version.
It is simply unhelpful to treat the aforementioned views as the same as those of theistic evolutionists, who are clearly willing to embrace the conclusions of modern science. They may hold views about cosmology, metaphysics, and perhaps even the supernatural or the afterlife that not all will agree with, but provided they are solid on science (as Collins clearly is), I can’t see that holding his religious beliefs against him would be anything other than discrimination on the basis of religion, and I no more favor that than discrimination on the basis of atheism.
danielg said,
June 4, 2009 at 7:53 pm
He’s not a creationist, he’s a theistic evolutionist. And Old Earth. And he’s wicked smart (I mean, besides being an evolutionist
Madeleine said,
June 28, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Does one’s belief about origins have a bearing on one’s ability in the field of health?
Ben said,
July 30, 2009 at 2:14 am
Since I did not realize that Collins actually is interested in putting his religion where his science should go (as Sam Harris has recently pointed out), I may have to reconsider my opinion. Although I’m not sure the specific job infringes on those specific places. So maybe there’s still no real problem. Dunno.
Ben