Quit pretending evolution doesn't threaten religion. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine

Quit pretending evolution doesn't threaten religion. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine

I found this article a long time ago. But recently I was reading Bones of Contention by Marvin Lubenow. In it he includes a humorous exchange in which an evolutionist and creationist discuss the evidence for evolution. The creationist wants the evolutionist to check out evidence that contradicts evolutionary theory. The evolutionist keeps repeating the mantra that scientists know evolution to be true and that creationists are allowing religion to cloud their thinking.

Intelligent design advocates want the same thing: they want evolution supporters to check out the evidence against evolution. But they want to present that evidence without reference to a mechanism to replace natural selection and random mutation. For this, they get beaten up by the atheist evolutionists and by the creationists. Interestingly, the atheists and creationists both beat them up for not stating what mechanism they think intelligent design uses. By definition, the atheists are looking for answers that exclude God and supernatural intervention. There are not fooled by intelligent design advocates because they know that intelligent design points to an intelligent designer, in other words, a god.

Creationists believe that intelligent design advocates should go farther and state the obvious: God is the intelligent designer. This seems to be exactly what most intelligent design proponents want to avoid - any mention of the word God.