Paul is a writer and Events Manager at the CMI-US office. Paul grew up in a Christian home, and was converted to Christ at a young age. He has studied apologetics and creation science for many years, after originally being challenged by evolutionary thinking in high school. After graduating from the University of Georgia with a B.A. in International Affairs, he spent several years living abroad with his wife Amanda as an English language instructor in South Korea and Russia.
@PDPrice , avoiding the scientific arguments for a moment, come introduce yourself. Who are you? What brings you here? What do you hope for?
Thanks very much for the introduction. It took me a while to notice it, sorry. I came here on the recommendation of @stcordova, whom I met through Reddit. I was told that this forum may be more productive than attempting to engage with the goons over at r/DebateEvolution. And he was largely correct in that assessment. I’m still one against many, but this is much better than Reddit in any case. I gain immensely from the opportunity to hear from skeptics directly.
Who am I? I guess the bio there is a decent summary. I’ve got lots of interests and hobbies, but I was blessed enough to get to take on one of my oldest interests- apologetics- as a full time career. I now have the honor of working with some of the world’s foremost creation scientists, and even getting to write with them.
My participation here is of my own private choice and was not dictated to me or endorsed in any way by the ministry. My views expressed here are my own personal views, not necessarily those of the ministry. Any mistakes or false statements I may inadvertently make are my own mistakes alone.
What do you like about apologetics? Do you see apologetics as primarily an “offensive” task (showing how other beliefs systems are insufficient) or defensive (showing that Christianity is truth)?
What kind of scientific background do you have? It doesn’t seem like your formal education is in the sciences, has most of your learning been from CMI folks or books/internet/etc. ?
What would be something you’d like to learn about the folks here at Peaceful Science?
What would be something you’d like people here to learn about you?
Sorry if that’s a blast of questions, don’t feel obligated to answer if you don’t want to, I’m just curious.
It preserved my own faith from being destroyed in high school.
Do you see apologetics as primarily an “offensive” task (showing how other beliefs systems are insufficient) or defensive (showing that Christianity is truth)?
Both, really, but oftentimes the best defense can be a good offense.
What kind of scientific background do you have?
I got through some college-level science classes while I was still in high school, but that’s it. I don’t have formal university training in science, so that means I am limited to drawing from the work of others in the field.
It doesn’t seem like your formal education is in the sciences, has most of your learning been from CMI folks or books/internet/etc. ?
All of the above.
What would be something you’d like to learn about the folks here at Peaceful Science?
Right now I seem to be in the vast minority, representing the YEC viewpoint. Other than @stcordova who invited me, perhaps the only one, other than @r_speir whose views are perhaps a bit murky in this area. Why the under-representation? Have there been others in the past that have left?
Also: is Peaceful Science endorsed by or run by any other outside organization?
What would be something you’d like people here to learn about you?
I am a big fan of retro gaming. On a CRT. I love to go thrifting and look for games and VHS tapes. Not that any of that is relevant to science, unless you’re counting computer science.
There are a few others, one of our moderators (@J.E.S) is a YEC. There have been a few “drive by” YECs that have kind of blasted a bunch a posts and then took off in the time I’ve been here. I realize being a minority viewpoint, especially in a topic people feel very passionate about, can be quite difficult. I do wish we had more YEC folks as long-term conversation partners but there is such a large philosophical gap between YEC and atheists, in particular, that it makes dialog very hard and emotionally taxing.
Right now I think the Peaceful Science website itself is run by @swamidass, but a non-profit organization is being formed currently to grow the effort (particularly in areas of Ancestry, Art, and AI). A lot of the financial/grant-related stuff is being done through Washington University in St. Louis, I believe. There was some funding from the John Templeton Foundation for helping @swamidass workshop his GAE book, for instance.
How about cassettes and vinyl? A friend of mine is really into a lot of 80’s nostalgia and is always loves to find that stuff. I’m a child of the 80’s as well so I can see some of the attraction, but I’m not into it enough to spend time/money on it.
I just got a tape deck from a yardsale, so I’ll get cassettes if they’re cheap I guess. But it’s not a major interest or anything. I was impressed by the quality, since I mostly grew up with CDs. I didn’t realize tapes could sound so good. I do like analog technology.
It varies, I’m particularly thinking about different philosophies of science. Some examples:
TEs and atheists will probably find more common ground in methodological naturalism
OECs, TEs, and atheists will find common ground in a basic belief that science can tell us something real about the past. They don’t tend to split things into “historical science vs observational science” like YECs tend to.
There are obviously major differences between all theists and atheists, but it’s hard to hold a conversation when there is virtually no common ground to build upon, which was my point.
@Paul_Nelson/@pnelson (I never can remember which handle he uses) is also YEC, if I recall correctly. Nelson and JES actually have pretty amiable conversational relationships here. So there is no requirement that all of your interactions would necessarily consist of 900 argumentative posts
Welcome and yup more YEC are needed to put things right. I think science is a verb and not a noun and entirely within human intellectual abilities. So its just people figuring things out and proving it or thinking they proved it.
YEC is under-represented for the simple reason it is completely untenable from a scientific perspective. It was soundly disproven well over 2 centuries ago by Christian scientists who ironically enough were seeking to validate things like a literal Noah’s Flood and young Earth. All the later discoveries in paleontology, radiometrics, and genetics have made the YEC position even more hopeless. That’s not a knock on YECs personally - my late mom and my two sisters was/are YECs - but in science it’s a non-starter. Keep all the Biblical beliefs you want but if you come in trying to “scientifically” demonstrate YEC claims you’re going to get your butt handed to you on a plate.
