Letter submitted to the editor of the Baylor "Lariat" (lariat@baylor.edu),
2000/04/10

Re: <http://www.baylor.edu/~Lariat/Archives/2000/20000406/art-front01.html>

Baylor's science and arts faculty have reason to be concerned about
the new Polanyi Center.  Both William Dembski and Bruce Gordon are
associated with Seattle's Discovery Institute Center for the Renewal
of Science and Culture (<http://www.discovery.org/crsc/index.php3>).
Gordon modestly describes the Polanyi Center's aims as exploring the
interaction between science and theology, but he and Dembski are
committed to the CRSC's aggressive political program to displace
science as it is currently constituted and practiced.

 "Now a new generation of scientists and scholars have launched a major
 challenge to the scientific materialism that dominated twentieth
 century thought and life. Drawing on new evidence from the very
 scientific fields that once seemed to justify a materialistic
 perspective, scientists have begun to resuscitate the scientific
 argument for design and to reaffirm the uniqueness of humanity within
 creation."  -- from the DI CRSC web site

The CRSC won't stop with philosophical naturalism, but also aims to
eliminate the methodological naturalism that underlies all of current
scientific practice.

Gordon told Blair Martin that concerns that the Polanyi Center will
step on the turf of the science faculty are simply a misunderstanding.
But Dembski often claims that his views are scientific in nature, and
not just apologetics.  Dembski claims that biologists must now accept
his conclusions concerning intelligent design in his "Science and
Design" article
(<http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9810/dembski.html>), for
example.

The events at Baylor follow what CRSC Advisor Phillip Johnson calls
"the Wedge" strategy, part of which is to place CRSC Fellows in
academic settings and to foster "opinion-maker" conferences.  Anyone
can confirm the CRSC influence on the Polanyi Center's "Nature of
Nature" conference by comparing the list of organizers and
participants to the list of CRSC Fellows and Advisors.

Dembski's original articles and interviews document his aggressive and
confrontational poses.  For example, one of Dembski's rhetorical
devices is to compare evolutionary biologists to the former Soviet
regime and the CRSC Fellows to the freedom movement that brought down
that regime (<http://www.arn.org/docs/insight499.htm>).  My page at
<http://inia.cls.org/~welsberr/ae/dembski_wa.html> links to Dembski's
articles and to commentary upon them.


Wesley R. Elsberry
Graduate Student
Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
Texas A&M University