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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Can Creationists Contribute to Science?
Message-ID: <649@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jan-84 13:16:15 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.649
Posted: Tue Jan 24 13:16:15 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Jan-84 18:51:24 EST
References: <791@qubix.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 37

Supposing that there had been a "compact" creative episode some time in
the past, there is no way we humans could tell when or how it had occurred.
It could have been yesterday, for all we could ever tell.  Our memories
of earlier times would be created just as easily as the rest of the world.

If there was a creation, at least the creator left around some laws
by which the universe changes from its original state into new states.
These are the laws that science tries to deduce.  Now there are two
possible conditions: (1) The creator did a good job, so that the
initial conditions appear compatible with the laws that science may
eventually discover; (2) The creator left incompatibilities that will
not fit with any laws that could possibly account for ongoing phenomena.

No-one is arrogant enough to think that we now know all the laws of
science.  If science is to progress, we must assume that incompatibilities
indicate ignorance of the real laws for which we seek.  To assume that
the incompatibility is one left deliberately by the creator is to
terminate the scientific effort.  One may BELIEVE it to be the case,
while still seeking for ways to remove the incompatibility by restating
the laws.

Whether or not the creator intended us to find eventually laws that
"apparently" lead back through the true moment of creation, or to find
laws that ALWAYS lead to incompatibilities at that moment is a question
science can probably NEVER resolve.  Under the present general understanding
of physics, biology, etc. etc. there is a moment at which the laws seem
to change intrinsically, about 15-20 billion years ago.  I think most
scientists might accept that there was a moment of special creation
at that time, but I think that is not the moment "creationists" prefer.

My answer to the question that titles this note is

NO! Creationists can not contribute to science. They can only kill it.
-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt