06.12.09
Can an evolutionist be a theist != can a darwinist be a christian?
Miller responds to the Coyne attack on accommodationism: Thoughts of an “Ardent Theist,”
or Why Jerry Coyne is Wrong
Can an evolutionist also be a theist? I used to think that the answer to this question was an obvious and self-evident “yes.” So did philosopher Michael Ruse, who brilliantly defended science in the 1983 Arkansas trial that sounded the death knell for efforts to put “scientific creationism” in American schools. Can a Darwinian be a Christian? was the title of Ruse’s carefully-reasoned 2001 book on the question, and his answer was an emphatic “yes.”
One problem with this debate is the shifting ground: ‘can an evolutionist also be a theist?’ gets passed around one’s back and comes out (and is left unsaid) ‘can a Darwinists be a Christian?’
Obviously these things are not equivalent.