Friday night I was surfing TV and came across the end of a special program on NBC hosted by Tom Brokaw called “In God they trust: NBC’s Tom Brokaw goes inside the world of Christian Evangelicals”.
Even though I missed most of the show they do have a transcript of the show on MSNBC.
Evolution is the scientific concept describing adaptation of organisms and how that leads to changes. Those organisms that don’t adapt or adapt incorrectly go extinct. It really says nothing about “how life begins”. That charge is simply a strawman created by religionists. The changes that evolution describes is backed up with evidence and hundreds of years of research. ID is not being kept from the table, it just hasn’t presented itself properly.
“Mind Siege” is at the root a political book. It creates a bogey man (Humanism) and tries to scare the reader. The timing of the book (in 2000, an election year) and some nasty words about the just past administration of former President Clinton, make the intention clear.
The speakers at the event, calling for judges who rule based on their religious bias rather than rational logic, were a who’s who of the usual religious hypocrites we know and “love”.
I enjoy watching or reading a believer when they “get it” about religion and its place in society. They understand the importance of reason and logic in explaining our world. It doesn’t force them to change their religious beliefs but helps to balance that belief with the real world.