Posted by Alaric on September 12, 1998, at 22:52:44:

Let’s assume for a moment that creationists are being honest with themselves and others and believe that they actually have some sort of evidence or irrefutable argument that will be the undoing of the theory of evolution.

What would be the best way to communicate this astounding information to the scientists working on it and to the public at large?

Why has the scientific community not acknowledged it? Why haven’t the general public, the media, and even mainstream Christians accepted it?

Are we to believe that there is a great conspiracy where so many are out to stifle the poor little creationists?

Response

Posted by Kevin Kamberg on September 13, 1998, at 03:59:32:

As you may or may not know, there is not unanimity among Creationists on all the specifics (OEC and YEC), nor on what approach would be the most productive. Some Creationist groups/organizations choose to focus on swaying public opinion. Others prefer to do science to the best of their ability and let that speak for them.

Many here have heard me refer people to GRI as an example of the latter approach. T.O. Archives refer to them in a pretty good light, all things considered. The stuff there on the Paluxy prints probably has the most frequent references to GRI. If you go looking there to verify what I’ve said, be aware that GRI is headquartered at Loma Linda University, and when the articles refer to the “Loma Linda team”, that is GRI.

I emailed GRI about one year ago and asked why they weren’t as vocal in the whole C/E debate as some of the other more well known Creationist groups (like ICR for example). The response I got was that they prefer to focus on science rather than rhetoric and were content to let that speak for them. The research scientist that responded to me indicated that they are well aware of their good reputation and desire to keep it.

I know that several, if not all, of the GRI scientists are actively pursuing their chosen fields of science and are published in mainstream journals, as well as GRI’s journal Origins.

The other day I was digging around the LLU website. On the Dept. of Natural Sciences pages, I noticed the professors are extensively published in their respective fields. Now, let me say here that some of these professors may be OEC, but not evolutionists! Anyway, in addition to many various published pieces, I also noticed one professor in particular that had received numerous research grants.

I mention the above to make the point in the different philosophical approaches to what is actually going to be constructive. None of the professors are known to be active in Creationist circles or groups that I know of. They are focusing on the science end and leaving the rhetoric to others.

Frankly, it is this type of approach that I think Kurt Wise approves of. He has been pretty vocal in the past about Creationists going off half-cocked and ending up doing bad science. So it may be of some comfort to you to know that there are many more scientists of the Creationist persuasion that are actively doing the hard work in the trenches, though with little fanfare.

I hope that this has helped shed some light on the issue for you. 🙂

Response to Kevin

Posted by Alaric on September 13, 1998, at 08:21:49:

Thanks, Kevin. This looks interesting – do you have a link to GRI or LLU? I’d like to look at it.

Response to Alaric

Posted by Kevin Kamberg on September 13, 1998, at 12:40:57:

Here is the homepage for the LLU Graduate school’s Dept. of Natural Sciences: http://www.llu.edu/llu/grad/natsci/index.html. There is a toolbar at the bottom that will take you anywhere else on the LLU website that you may wish to look at. One interesting thing I found there were Natural sciences professors that play a major role in science and faith conference http://www.llu.edu/news/today/aug98/gs.htm#Natural.   Check out their stuff on the Proton Treatment Center. It is the first of its kind in the world!

Here is the one for the Geoscience Research Institute  http://www.tagnet.org/gri/. The top link on that page will take you to their info on the research scientists there. Although they only list a homepage for Elaine Kennedy there, someone here (Tim Thompson I think) found one for Ben Clausen http://www.lasierra.edu/~bclausen/.