By MICHAEL SHERMER - TRUE/SLANT
Added: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:00 UTC

http://trueslant.com/michaelshermer/2009/11/27/realist-not-%E2%80%9Caccommodationist%E2%80%9D-what-is-the-%E2%80%9Cright-way%E2%80%9D-to-respond-to-theists/

CNN article by Michael Shermer posted on RD.net 26-Nov http://richarddawkins.net/articles/4673

On the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (Tuesday, November 24) I wrote an invited opinion editorial for CNN.

The title, “Religion, Evolution can Live Side by Side,” was written by the CNN editors, but it does capture the thrust of the piece, as it seems to me that believers who accept Newton’s theory of gravity as the means by which God creates stars, planets, solar systems, galaxies, and universes, can just as readily accept Darwin’s theory of evolution as the means by which God creates life.

Perhaps predictably, there have been critics responding on both sides, most notably the estimable Jerry Coyne, the author of one of the best books ever written on the subject, Why Evolution is True, in his web page of the same title called me an “accommodationist” and even a “faitheist” (not sure what that is—“faith atheist”? but it’s clever!) Anyway, Jerry is “disappointed” in me and wonders if I’ve gone soft in the brain because of a Templeton Foundation sponsorship. Read it here.
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TAGGED: COMMENTARY, EVOLUTION, RELIGION