JT Bridges is “a professor of philosophy at Southern Evangelical Seminary in North Carolina” and Catholic fundamentalist who is also associated with the Discovery Institute, for whom he has for instance written the post “Hylomorphism as a Metaphysic for Intelligent Design Science”. In the post, Bridges attempts to use medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas to “give a philosophical justification for the conclusions arrived at scientifically by ID theorists” (emphasis in the original). That shouldn’t be too hard, given that Thomas, rooted in the teleological thinking of Aristotle, provided the (possibly) oldest and, given modern knowledge, dumbest design argument. The Thomistic tradition he initiated has, however, been extremely careful to emphasize the compatibility (indeed, integration) of science and faith, which makes it at least somewhat notable that Bridges tries to use it in a blatant attack on science – desperately asserting, against all fact and reason, that intelligent design creationism is “scientific” is a rather feeble attempt to sidestep the irony.
Otherwise, Bridges is very fascinated by the concept of information, the scientific use of which he, like creationists in general, doesn’t quite grasp. He is quite sure, however, that “the Darwinian mechanism are [sic] not capable of building this type of information and the only known source is something like conscious activity”, despite the evident falsehood of that claim.
Bridges is also affiliated with Norm Geisler International Ministries.
Diagnosis: At least he doesn’t claim to be a scientist – though some religious groups strangely thinks he is. But he is anti-science, and has devoted ample time and effort to promote science denial and pseudoscience. Certainly not one of the good guys.
Ahh, "doctor" Aquinas, Catholic Dr. Oz for everything imaginable.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I hear or read his name I've got nausea.