{"id":4239,"date":"2007-09-27T13:14:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-27T13:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/09\/francisco-j-ayala\/"},"modified":"2007-09-27T13:14:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-27T13:14:00","slug":"francisco-j-ayala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2007\/09\/francisco-j-ayala.html","title":{"rendered":"Francisco J. Ayala"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>The work of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.faculty.uci.edu\/profile.cfm?faculty_id=2134&amp;name=Francisco%20J.%20Ayala\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Francisco J. Ayala<\/a> in both biology and theology is gaining significant attention around the blogosphere. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uncommondescent.com\/intelligent-design\/ayalas-potemkin-village-review-of-francisco-ayalas-darwins-gift\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">William Dembski has offered a critical review<\/a> of Ayala\u2019s book <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0309102316?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0309102316\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Darwin\u2019s Gift: To Science and Religion<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"1\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0309102316\" width=\"1\" border=\"0\"><\/em> (which <a href=\"http:\/\/exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\/2007\/08\/heart-of-matter-what-does-god-do.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">I also reviewed on my blog<\/a> a while back). The <a href=\"http:\/\/pandasthumb.org\/archives\/2007\/09\/francisco-jose.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Panda\u2019s Thumb blog<\/a> also has an entry on the book. Of course, neither Ayala\u2019s work in <a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gnxp\/2006\/04\/francisco_ayala_autogenocide.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">biology<\/a> nor his engagement with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aaas.org\/programs\/centers\/pe\/events\/20060323ayala.shtml#F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">theology<\/a> is new to the web or in general.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who might simply read a review like Dembski\u2019s and dismiss Ayala\u2019s contribution really ought to visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/a> and read some of Ayala\u2019s work <em>in the sciences<\/em> first hand. Just search for \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/content\/vol104\/suppl_1\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ayala<\/a>\u201c. Indeed, anyone who thinks that the majority of scientists are simply deceived by ideology must never have visited such sites, where there is continuous stream of papers on research into biological evolution that are intelligent, well-written, and show clearly that, rather than being a \u201cspent force\u201d, evolution is an exciting area of ongoing research that is extremely fruitful.<\/p>\n<p>Intelligent and fruitful theological discussion of the intersection between mainstream science and religion continues to occur and be productive, largely apart from the ID crowd and certainly not in ways that presuppose that framework. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ctns.org\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences<\/a> has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ctnsstars.org\/conferences\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">web pages for several conferences<\/a> that include reading materials that are useful and are freely shared on their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ctnsstars.org\/conferences\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">web page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I draw attention to all these online resources in an attempt to highlight the fact that, while movements like Intelligent Design continue to garner much attention (following their manifesto of self-promotion quite carefully), the really fruitful discussions between mainstream religion and science is happening in a much more low-key fashion, which does not usually get it the attention that controversy would. But that is where the really significant stuff is happening, outside the limelight, in a fashion that displays the courtesy and creativity one would expect from those genuinely seeking the truth \u2013 whether in religion or in science.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-7434715911669041178?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The work of Francisco J. Ayala in both biology and theology is gaining significant attention around the blogosphere. William Dembski has offered a critical review of Ayala\u2019s book Darwin\u2019s Gift: To Science and Religion (which I also reviewed on my blog a while back). The Panda\u2019s Thumb blog also has an entry on the book. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Francisco J. Ayala<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The work of Francisco J. Ayala in both biology and theology is gaining significant attention around the blogosphere. 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