"Purely Political Ploy": Fool the Public for the Sake of Science

Another quote from the TIME article debate between Francis Collins and Richard Dawkins:

TIME: Stephen Jay Gould, a Harvard paleontologist, famously argued that religion and science can coexist, because they occupy separate, airtight boxes. You both seem to disagree.

COLLINS: Gould sets up an artificial wall between the two worldviews that doesn’t exist in my life. Because I do believe in God’s creative power in having brought it all into being in the first place, I find that studying the natural world is an opportunity to observe the majesty, the elegance, the intricacy of God’s creation.

DAWKINS: I think that Gould’s separate compartments was a purely political ploy to win middle-of-the-road religious people to the science camp. But it’s a very empty idea. . . .

Dawkins position, which is shared by many, seriously undermines one of the key premises of the Dover ruling by Judge Jones. The judge ruled as if people like Dawkins do not exist, or are wrong as a matter of law. Evolutionary theory and intelligent design both have clear philosophical and religious implications.

For a further discussion, go here.