INTELLIGENT design (ID) is not just bad science, it is bad religion, says Francisco Ayala, and he should know: he once trained for the Catholic priesthood, and is now an evolutionary biologist. This sensitive book is an attempt to do what many 鈥� Richard Dawkins on one side, the pope and creationists on the other 鈥� say cannot be done. It tries to find a place for natural selection in religious explanations of the world. Darwin is a friend to religion, Ayala says, because his theory lets God off the hook: dysfunctions and disease were not designed by God, they evolved, and evil is just part of the natural order. ID is bad theology because it requires an 鈥渆vil鈥� God. As gentle as Dawkins is inflammatory 鈥� but less stimulating 鈥� Ayala may perhaps release more ID proponents from their erroneous views.
Darwin鈥檚 Gift to Science and Religion
Joseph Henry Press
