Hi all,
I want to thank you all again for your responses to my query.
I still have not found a book "right" for explaining things at my friend's level. I had some exerpts of Miller's "Finding Darwin's God" and all she could see from them was "He's trying to set himself up as Godlike..." and didn't read any further. I did go to the trouble of writing a simple 11 page explanation of heritability, mutations, and diversity. I brought in simple definitions of evolution, scientific method, scientific theory, TOE, gene pool, etc. I am much better at explaining my points in writing than in speech. She took this as solely microevolution and refused to extend it to macroevolution. I haven't been able to obtain copies of the PBS Evolution series yet, but am working on it.
I think that the main problem I am having, (and this extends, I believe, to any attempts at E vs C with the general populace) is that creationist literature, to a great extent, is written with lay ppl in mind; easy to read, catchy phrasiology, no real pesky science to get in the way of the affirmation of believe. Conversely, most literature on the evolution side contains a much more indepth discussion of science that presupposes a general working knowledge of the basics. Attempts to start out with the basics and build on them to explain TOE start reading like textbooks and some ppl loose interest fast, or become so juvenile as to be almost insulting.
Oh well, still trying.
The book she has given me to read is Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ". In an initial look thru when she first gave it to me, I was able to bring several points to her attention, i.e. the one sided "investigation", the simplistic "proofs" in the first chapter, and the acceptance of the "proofs" in the first to bolster those in the subsequent chapters.
I have read several online refutations of this book, including
Bidstrup, and
Lowder.
Does anyone know of any other accessable reviews/refutations of this book to help bolster the notations I am writing for her in the margins of this book? Do any of you have any other information that might not have made it into these refutations?
Thanks again for all your help.
______________________
Asgara
"An unexamined life is not worth living" Socrates via Plato
edited to add signature and fix typos
[This message has been edited by Asgara, 06-27-2003]
[This message has been edited by Asgara, 06-27-2003]