The Religion Card

Denyse O'Leary's blog entry entitled Darwinism proponent now simply avoids ID arguments? reveals another tactic utilized to counter intelligent design. Comments of David Rice III about Eugenie Scott are examined. O'Leary describes what seems to be the playing of a religion card which involves disengagement from substantive discussions about intelligent design in favor of talking about religion. The next paragraph quotes Rice:

"Scott used to be (in my opinion) a somewhat respectable foe. But she has not bothered to really engage in the arguments for ID and this radio appearance is one more example of that. The only time the words "intelligent design" leave Scott's mouth is at the 24:48 mark where she said "Actually before I mention intelligent design, I also had a thought regarding that last call...." and then it is never uttered there after - she DIDN"T address intelligent design. This schtick is just not going to work."

And Denyse's comment follows:

"No, it is not going to work. How can it possibly work when major Darwinists spent last year on an "anti-God" campaign? The fact is, Darwinism has always been promoted as the creation story of materialist atheism. No spin aimed at foolish or disaffected clergy is going to change that, nor is Scott going to succeed in characterizing the inevitable blowback from traditional religions and non-materialist philosophies as a form of aggression."

I don't believe it will work either and also notice that it is primarily the Eugenie camp that brings up religion time and time again. She has evidently made up her mind that engaging IDers on scientific matters can backfire and opts for a very unproductive meme instead. Too bad.