A long time ago, I read a brief passage somewhere that I can’t remember, about a nineteenth century creation scientist whose name I can’t recall. I’ve wanted to find information about him again for years, but he’s hard to google for reasons I will make clear. Tell me, can any of you recall hearing about this man:
This forgotten creation scientist was searching for proof of the great flood. As best I recall, he had proposed a theory involving most of the Earth’s water being suspended in the upper atmosphere until a meteorological chain reaction caused it to all precipitate in short order.
He was criticised by fellow creationists for insisting that there had to be a scientific explanation for everything in the bible, rather than simply allowing Yaweh to have initiated the deluge at his discretion. The creation scientist answered with a colorful story, which I shall attempt to reproduce:
The problem when trying to google for information that might lead to this guy is that everybody used clockmakers as metaphors for God when arguing philosohphy, and crackpot theories about the flood are a dime a dozen. Usually I just get links to arguments about dualism vs. reductionism or essays about the evolution ‘controversy’.
I am fascinated by the tale of this divided man who apparently insisted on dedicating himself to an impossible task; and I think some of his points could be used in a rational argument for the compatibility of evolution with the existence of a god, without having to resort to that ‘intelligent design’ crap, which could have interesting results against a contemporary creationist.
Creationist: “Life could never arrise from random chemical reactions; the odds are ridiculously low.”
Creationist Debater: “Are you saying God’s not smart enough to figure out a way to make it work?”
Has anybody heard of anyone that could be him?