MercerJohn MercerMolecular Biologist
thoughtful
That’s a surprising claim. I’ve watched YT videos and successfully tiled a shower (applying the knowledge and producing evidence!), but it is inconceivable that I would ever claim to know 1% of what a professional does.
Do you really think that you relatively know that much?
I’m not sure how that constitutes a response to my pointing out that evidence is the key, not knowledge. Can you explain what you are trying to convey with that?
Knowledge of what? What I said was superficial…one can have the knowledge of Belchy, for example, and not apply it correctly, and therefore arrive at ID conclusions. One can know several good peer-reviewed papers here and there on biology, but applying that knowledge appropriately in the context of more specialized experience (as you guys who are biologists, biochemists, etc.) is entirely another level. Same applies for Biblical Studies: one can have the knowledge of variants and textual criticism at a certain level, but that doesn’t mean you will actually know how to sort manuscripts by text-types and which variants are actually meaningful and how to fully interpret an NT apparatus. One can study computers and networking via YouTube and practice a little, that doesn’t turn one into a trusted technician who knows how to troubleshoot or a network administrator on which the network’s operations rest.
Take for instance Nicholas Wades, of whom we discussed in the SARS-CoV-2 Origins thread, who knows enough about the subject to publish something about it: knowledge is one thing, but application of it is yet another.
Professor Larry W. Hurtado (Emeritus Prof. of New Testament who passed away in 2019) said the same about Jesus Mythicists who deny that Jesus of Nazareth ever existed: they know enough to posit something untenable, but they are misapplying the textual, historical and archaeological Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian textual corpora.