By JASON ROSENHOUSE - EVOLUTIONBLOG
Added: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 UTC

Thanks to mirandaceleste for the link.
http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2009/10/how_about_another_post_on_acco.php
see link http://richarddawkins.net/article,4539,Why-Dawkins-Gets-Asked-About-His-Atheism,Chris-Mooney---The-Intersection for recent RDFRS discussion on this and links to the post from Josh Rosenau.

I had intended to leave this subject behind, at least for a while, but Josh Rosenau has a lengthy post up that I think merits a reply. See also this post and the ensuing comments.

On several occasions at this blog (here and here for example) I have endorsed the efforts of the NCSE and other science advocacy groups to reach out to religious groups. I think it is great that NCSE has a permanent employee devoted to such outreach. Religious supporters of evolution have been essential in every major victory, both legal and political, our side can claim. If we can open people's eyes to the diversity of religious opinion, and persuade them towards more moderate forms of religious belief I think that is great.

If I did not believe that outreach to religious believers was a valuable activity, I would not spend so much time going to creationist and ID conferences. When I participate in the Q and A's at such conferences, or interact with the conference goers, I do not attack or mock their religion. Instead I focus completely on the scientific blunders of the speakers. I try to be as polite as I possibly can. Obviously I have no illusions about my ability to convince a devout evangelical Christian to change his mind. I do believe, however, that I might be able to plant a few seeds and to show people something they have not seen before. I also believe that it is harder to ridicule and stereotype a group of people (I'm talking now about creationists mocking evolutionists) when a representative of that group is standing right there. I discussed this issue in this essay (PDF format) in BioScience a few years ago.

The problem comes when outreach to religious groups becomes a euphemism for bashing people who take a less cozy view of the science/religion issue. Pointing to the diversity of religious opinion is fine, dismissing as fringe extremists people who dissent from NOMA is not. When any sort of criticism of accommodationist arguments is seen as harmful to the cause, then we have a problem. We have several recent examples to illustrate things:
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Continue reading and numerous links
http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2009/10/how_about_another_post_on_acco.php

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