wanted to say, right on. Though I don’t know as much as I would like about the science (or not) of the origin-of-the-world debate, I so appreciated your final point and think it has ramifications no matter what culture war is currently being fought. Christian subculture has often become so worked up about pet issues that it has neglected, tragically, the business of loving people — and of course, the business of loving God Himself in His glory, and majesty, and ultimate beauty.

It’s encouraging to see someone saying this stuff — and convicting — though I see the lack of practical love, am I asking God how He might use me to fill it?

it seems as if he has preframed the dialogue as a religious debate. finding a discontinuity in evolution theory seems a reasonable scientific step. what it looks to me as behe is doing next is saying ’so piecewise evolution is wrong, therefore creationism’ – recycling an age-old debate. is it really an either-or proposition?

i also don’t think that the media is misrepresenting the situation as badly as you suggest, because i think that this simple representation is a natural outflow of reducing it to a simple partisan debate.

the problem of course is that i don’t particularly think partisan debates solve much. you’ll note in the gospels that jesus studiously avoids getting into back-and-forth matches, rather sidestepping the invitation to debate and refusing to get ensnared in things that don’t matter.

it’s not something we as Christians have been very good at emulating.

I’ll say that I agree with Lee and Maggie. Where’s my yellow shirt?

i’ll admit i’m not as well-read a critic of intelligent design theory as others may be. is there perhaps a peer-reviewed journal that discusses the current research going on in intelligent design?

that said, i’ve had the opportunity to attend a few lectures and be involved in a few conversations on the topic, so i at least have some familiarity with it. i’m certainly open to learning new things, of course.

as far as i understand “irreducibly complex systems”, they are quite simply systems which we cannot explain how they came about in an evolutionary or progressive way. similarly for the happy fact that the universe is a stable, predictable place with excellent values for the charge of the electron and the speed of light. what are the odds? science offers us no explanation for why we should be so fortunate to be so. at least, we cannot currently explain these problems. so while scientists are looking for an explanation, the intelligent design camp is saying “don’t bother looking, God did it with a miracle.” that’s certainly fine, except it is a terrible cornerstone on which to build one’s faith. what happens when some enterprising young scientist is able to construct a reasonable narrative?