So today’s couple of sessions was quite eventful. I arrived at around 8 am and saw a guy I know from the bookstore, Ben Arbour. He told me that the store would have a big sale that day and after he presented his paper (Modal Ontological Arguments) he would go there and help set up shop.
The first presentation was by Micah Meek with the paper titled “Christianity and Utilitarianism,” I think it was a good paper but it was a bit hard to follow. Basically he explained that God is not a utilitarian (meaning those that believe life is concerned with having the most joy and good with the least amount of bad). Honestly it was difficult to understand because of the words, though I might be able to understand if I went back and read it slowly.
The next session was a hard choice for me. However I ended up going to a session by Mike Keas called “The Role of Apologetics in Preparing for College” I realized that this was the same guy that showed me how to get to the center yesterday! It was rather informal but I enjoyed the idea. He was basically saying that Christian groups need to utilize, or be formed which deal with apologetics and so that young people don’t loose their faith. I also met this student (Arc) that goes to Southwestern and we traded information and so I might talk with him a bit.
The next session I wanted to go to was in the same room and the speaker was John D. Morris. Before that, I talked to one of the guys behind me who asked a question previously. He had an interesting book called “Darwin’s Racists” with him and he told me basically that it was his book. The guy was Raymond Bohlin of Probe ministries, good thing I didn’t say what I thought his name was (William Dembski). He was very nice and actually gave me that book that he had with him. In the actual session I learned some things such as the fact that if something is alive, its complex. That we don’t observe change anywhere in the fossil record and that animals supposedly from millions of years ago look the same as they do now. Another interesting part is that dinosaurs are usually found in one particular position, with their head arched back as though gasping for air.
Dr. Morris’ computer wasn’t working so there was a short Q&A time before the presentation in which people were asking all kinds of different questions. Eventually the powerpoint got back on and it was a good lesson on how the fossil record does not prove evolution. I got to talk with him briefly before the final session as well as this other guy named Jay who mentioned a professor of Chinese history (I believe) at TCU who did some research on Chinese characters and their relation to pre-flood times (it was something like that). He has my card and will probably email me later on.
The final session was a panel discussion between William Dembski and Henry Morris III and there were some interesting ideas kinda tossed back and forth. It was interesting to hear how the realm in Creation Science or Intelligent Design that needs that most study is basically astronomy. From what I gathered from the whole discussion was that IDers such as Dembski put the science on a high plane while (specifically young earth) creationists exalt the reliability of the Bible. Also that ID people tend to want to lead people back to a Creator slowly (using text passage Exodus 13:17 for a “text” for this idea.)
Overall it was a very enjoyable and informative conference. I think I would go again if it was in the same seminary. I hope to be able however to stay in contact with some of these folks, especially those from ICR. It is interesting to see how I really wasn’t trying to give out my business card but I ended up giving a lot out. I think that if you are really interested in the topic and you are a person who engages others, you won’t have any trouble “making contacts” (this last part is for anyone reading who may be in that Applied Sociology class)