“If Christianity were true religious persecution would become a pious and charitable duty: if God designs to punish men for their opinions it would be an act of mercy to mankind to extinguish such opinions. By burning the bodies of those who diffuse them many souls would be saved that would otherwise be lost, and so there would be an economy of torment in the long run. It is therefore not surprising that enthusiasts should be intolerant.” IfsMenShouldLongSoulBodyWould BeRunningLostReligiousChristianityOpinionEconomyMankindDesignDutyMercySavedBurningSurprisingLong RunsPersecutionTormentPiousCharitableReligious Persecution Book:The Martyrdom of Man Source: The Martyrdom of Man
“Even though their arguments did not invoke religion, I think we all know what's behind these arguments. They're trying to protect religious beliefs from contradiction by science. They used to do it by prohibiting teachers from teaching evolution at all; then they wanted to teach intelligent design as an alternative theory; now they want the supposed "weaknesses" in evolution pointed out. But it's all the same program - it's all an attempt to let religious ideas determine what is taught in science courses.” ThinkingKnowsWantTryingIdeasWantedUsedCoursesBeliefReligiousBehindsTeachTeacherAtheismTeachingDesignTaughtTheoryEvolutionProtectWeaknessProgramArgumentIntelligentDeterminePositive AtheismAlternativesContradictionReligious BeliefInvokeIntelligent Design Author:Steven Weinberg
“The new advocates of ID [Intelligent Design] ask that their ideas be judged by scientific, not religious, criteria. OK, let's see how well ID stacks up as a scientific alternative to Darwinism. To gauge how well ID is doing as a platform for scientific research, I logged into the best database of the biological literature. A search for keyword ''evolution'' yielded 24,000 hits in the last decade. A search for ''intelligent design'' yielded not a single piece of research. Evolution by natural selection remains the basis of every successful biological research program.” WellsIdeasLastsAsksLiteratureNaturalReligiousSuccessfulPiecesAtheismDesignEvolutionResearchProgramBasesIntelligentRemainsPositive AtheismDecadesAlternativesJudgedPlatformsSelectionCriteriaNatural SelectionDarwinismScientific ResearchGaugesIntelligent DesignDatabasesKeywords Author:Chet Raymo