Robert C.
Newman has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Cornell and is currently Professor of
New Testament and Director of the Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute
at the Biblical Theological Seminary of Hatfield. He is a longtime contributor
to the Intelligent Design literature (e.g. to the Dembski-edited anthology Mere Creation: Science, Faith &
Intelligent Design), and is a signatory to the Discovery Institute’s
intellectually bankrupt petition A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.
According to Newman,
there are organisms that possess incredible complexity, but which also seem to
be clearly malevolent. These, Newman thinks, are the work of “malevolent spirit
beings,” or perhaps the work of “non-spiritual intelligences
(extra-terrestrials).” Insofar as they are the work of malevolent spirit
beings, this is evidence for the controversial hypothesis that “the fall of
Satan is much earlier than that of Adam, and creation is already not so good by
the time Adam comes along.” Accordingly, “[t]hese are things that theologians,
scientists and philosophers need to think about,” but I think he means
theologians – philosophers and scientists usually have better things to do.
Unfortunately
the program does not yield easily testable predictions, so it may not in the
end count as a genuine research program – though it is probably the best we’ll
get from the Intelligent Design crowd. Newman’s findings are described in his
paper ” “Rumors of Angels: Using ID to Detect Malevolent Spiritual Agents.”
He is
probably not the same guy as Robert Newman of the California Christian
Coalition, who has said – in response to efforts to combat bullying based on sexual orientation – that bullying
is “part of the maturational process,” and that he does not “think that
bullying is a real issue in schools.”
Diagnosis:
No, Newman. That’s not how things work. But at least he is unlikely to win many
new converts for his pseudoscience.
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