I wrote earlier in the month how Francis Collins and the BioLogos Foundation was trying to reconcile evangelical Christians with science in hopes that the two might peacefully co-exist. Well it seems that the (ironically named) Discovery Institute is having none of that.

If you recall, it is the Discovery Institute that has been pushing Intelligent Design as legitimate science, and more recently was covertly was behind the scenes in the Texas school board’s ill-advised push to “teach the controversy”. Their position has been that they are a scientific institute and have no religious affiliation. That ID and the manufactured “evolution controversy” are legitimate scientific topics deserving of classroom discussion. While this was pretty clearly just a ploy on their part to try and keep the courts from ruling that this was a church and state issue, they have been consistently adamant that the issues were not religiously motivated. This was a science-on-science Russian cage match.

How interesting that the Discovery Institute has now launched the Faith & Evolution website, which seems pretty much dedicated to the premise that faith and evolution are incompatible. You need to choose, and God will only favor those who reject evolution. They are rather pointed about this site being a direct response to Collins and BioLogos. In light of this, it seems the Discovery Institute will have a pretty tough time defending itself as a scientifically rather than a religiously motivated organization.

All of which is just fine by me. I would much rather that the Discovery Institute be honest and upfront about them finding science an affront to their religious mythology rather than trying to dress their mythology up and pass it off as science. If your world-view can’t reconcile science and religion, then fine. Say that; reject one of them; move on. In a similar way, most Christians can’t reconcile their religious views with Hinduism. The result being that they (quietly or not) reject Hinduism as wrong and move on. They don’t try and dress up the Bible as somehow being a legitimate variation on Hindu beliefs. Why not treat science with that same arm’s length deference?

And at the risk of answering my own question, I expect science is different because unlike Hinduism, it’s taught as a factual subject in school. On the other hand, Hinduism doesn’t open up so very many career options for graduates. I wonder if the Discovery Institute is hiring? Or doesn’t that matter because Jesus preached the virtues of poverty?