1. SCIENCE DEBATE 2008: SOME DAYS GET REALLY LONG. The "Compassion Forum" on Sunday night at Messiah College was not exactly the debate scientists had hoped for. It wasn’t a debate at all; Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were interviewed separately. Jon Meacham of Newsweek asked Senator Clinton straight out, "do you personally believe life begins at conception?" "I believe the potential for life begins at conception," she began. Would she now try to explain to this Christian-conservative audience why a single cell is not just a very small person?
Not a chance; she wandered off into a discussion of her Methodist roots. It would be up to Senator Obama.
Campbell Brown of CNN, Meacham’s co-host, asked Obama what he would say to one of his daughters if she asked him if God really created the universe in six days. Glory! It was the opening scientists pray for, a chance for an audacious young man to tell the story of creation to the entire nation. "No dear, the story of the beginning of the universe is far grander than that. It is 14 billion years old and still changing. Science has learned much, but there is far more still to be learned."
Of course he did not say that. He said, "Six days in the bible may not be 24-hour days." Sigh! They debated again on Wednesday - nothing to report.
[...]
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND. Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the University of Maryland, but they should be. --- Archives of What's New can be found at http://www.bobpark.org