The Colson thing already getting amusing

Kazim and I have heard back from Mike Pritchard, who told us he's sending us Colson's book and all that. Kazim then set out a few parameters for how we would like any dialogue to go, mindful of the fact that our usual dealings with apologists reveal them to be, oh, less than scrupulously honest, shall we say. Mike responded with this interestingly worded note.

Yes, this all sounds great to me. I thought about the difference between the posting and comments too, and explained this to my liaison with Chuck. Basically, we know the comments could go in a million different directions, but we'll just keep focused on the main blog postings and realize the comments are a bit of the Wild Wild West if you will.

Let me run all this by Chuck's folks, but I'm confident they'll agree too. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for documenting this all out.

"My liaison with Chuck"? "Chuck's folks"? First we're told that Colson wants all dialogue to go through Mike Pritchard, and now it looks like everything is going to get filtered through Mike and a small army of handlers. It's as if Colson doesn't want to talk to the evil godless heathens without a bunch of redshirts shielding him or something. Our suspicion is that Colson is having his "folks" contact quite a lot of atheist blogs, with the intent of choosing the one offering the most lightweight arguments against his book. People who tend to be hard arguers like us could well end up not being chosen to participate in this "dialogue" at all.

Still, we'll see. Kazim, Matt and I are all finding the whole thing kind of entertaining, and if the book turns up, all I can promise to do is read it and be as honest in my critique as I can. Which will probably mean he won't want me to join in. But we'll just play it as it lays.

Since I haven't really read any of Colson's books or columns, I plan to do so over the next few weeks to see what his standard points are. I already know he's got a list of "Ten Questions About Origins," which an initial reading reveals to be the usual McDonald's menu of creationist canards and ignorance (where are the transitional fossils? what about the 2nd Law? what about irreducible complexity? yada yada). I suppose I'll respond to that one first, probably early next week, and then see what else he's got.