That he did, as have Barbara Forrest and many others, but those conclusions consist of 'blanket statements', and are subject to scrutiny. Many times when a statement of that ilk is made, there follows a link to one of the Creationist trials (Dover most often), the 29+ Evidences for Macroevolution, a critique of Forrest's book, 'Creationism's Trojan Horse', or links similar to those provided by Torben. These are just a few of the plethora of evolution supporting references, but the question we're addressing here is simply the "more or less" issue regarding the two camps.
Blanket statements abound in the media, an example being "The US has the best health care system in the world", courtesy of Sean Hannity, and almost on a daily basis. Even given the fact that the US is advanced technologically in many ways, would you buy that statement carte blanch?
First you define a philosophical or evidence based position. Then you debate the validity of its tenets. At that point you can more objectively discuss/ debate the merit of the conflation issue. A complicating factor here is the possibility that there are actually more than 'two camps', or that adherents (of either) may have altered their 'consensus' positions compared to say a decade ago.
After defining the two groups' seminal tenets, we can THEN discuss Dover, Demski, the Wedge et al. Any takers?
Again, what I'm asking for in simple terms is to define the basic beliefs of both camps, and where their beliefs correlate with each other. What are the conceptual differences between the two?
I.E., what does a Creationist believe (seminal concepts)?
What does a design theorist believe (seminal concepts)?
I just registered here, since I agree with the 'rationality' premise. Rational thought is (hopefully) less wrong than a less rational position, the implication being that little that the human mind formulates is totally correct. Less wrong is a goal, and modification of a stated position is often a requisite of nearing a more correct position.
Anyway, back to the topic of Blogginheads (allowed topics), accomodation, and (related) a critique of Michael Behe. Oh, also the question of whether ID is essentially Creationism.
First, RW sets the standards. It's been said that the stardards are too loose, but some would argue that stricter standards might lead to disallowance of certain positions, a form of censorship. That would be my position. General 'objective' guidelines, but not enforced 'standards'.
'Accomodation', with the meaning 'acceptance' of one's religious position by a scientist, does not mean that debate could not be done. While I would agree that debating a YEC position at Boggingheads might be 'over the line', and indeed raises the hackles on the backs of scientists, discussing the merits of ID should not. The "appearance of design" equating to actual design is a viable question, and has not been settled in my view.
If this is off-topic, you can table the question, but I'll ask it anyway. In what way does ID equate with Creationism? First define both, then state the correlation.
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