Paul Myers, in a recent post at the Panda’s Thumb, notes Chris Comer’s firing for publicizing a talk by Barbara Forrest. I’m still not clear about the details of the case, but if Comer’s firing were solely for supporting Forrest, this ought not to be. The ID community is committed to a culture of rational discourse, and that means freedom of expression for all parties to a debate.
The point of interest in Myers’s piece, however, is this: he goes on to describe Forrest as “one of their critics the creationists most fear, so it’s not surprising that her name would elicit knee-jerk panic.” Since Myers sees ID proponents as creationists, presumably he means to include us here as well. I find this description of Barbara Forrest remarkable, especially given how studiously she has avoided mixing it up with people on our side. [ADDENDUM: Given some of the comments below, it appears I’ve overstated matters. –WmAD]
Ironically, last year around this time she published an essay in which she called me a coward. I replied to her charges and offered to debate her. For the details, go here. Someone at this blog even offered to put up some money for the debate to happen. DaveScot repeatedly emailed her to try to arrange the debate. Never a response from Forrest.
Has Forrest ever debated or had a substantive exchange with any ID proponent?