I suppose it has been a while since PS has “celebrated” this phenomenon. Would anyone like to have the honor of providing their personal definition of The Byers’ Point™? (Perhaps you could even share a favorite memory or anecdote.)
This subtopic may even merit my resorting to the use of an emoticon.
(@misterme987, perhaps this phenomenon even preceded your joining us here at PS. Or have you heard the term before?)
(I recall @Dan_Eastwood providing a reaction whenever The Byers’ Point™ was announced.)
Fortunately, WLC has learned considerably more science in recent years—and his hearing our own Joshua Swamidass speak at a conference at Trinity International University a few years ago and then their dialogue and friendship which followed seemed to have changed him. I listened to one of his [WLC’s] recent lectures and still cringed at some of his summations of the “well-known weaknesses” of evolutionary theory. So I was definitely disappointed but I can at least say that he has made a lot of progress in not maintaining some of his worst arguments of a decade ago.
Of course, as a Visiting Scholar at Biola University (a bastion of ID), I don’t expect him to denounce ID theory any time soon. But the fact that he has considerably warmed to evolutionary processes in recent years and directly denounces the “young earth” movement as “an embarrassment” delights me to no end (especially when I hear some of the YEC leaders go into apoplexia reacting to that declaration.)
My personal history with WLC goes way back (our academic careers intersected and we chatted occasionally) and I greatly appreciated him (then and now) on various levels. And if I had to make a prediction, I think given a few more years he will more fully appreciate the solid foundations of evolutionary biology and will prove to be an even better advocate in Christian circles. I’m not agreeing with or justifying everything he says but I generally regard him as a positive force in combating anti-science tendencies in various Christian circles. (I mean, anybody who so openly declares “young earth” positions as “embarrassing” is a step in the right direction.)
Your mileage may differ. (Maybe I’m an old softie.)
@Faizal_Ali Mr. Byers has a particular talent for making comments that … defy all rational understanding … might be the shortest way to describe it. It’s more than just being wrong, and closer to being in a different reality.
