CW Check: When’s it okay to mistake “evangelist” for “evangelical”, and when is it okay to mock a person’s argument as faith-based, read: irrational and shortsighted? Apparently when you’re a believer using the terms ironically to argue that science is just another religion, masquerading as objective thought.
Wesley J. Smith, a fellow at the Discovery Institute — the body responsible for “Intelligent Design” theory that’s demanding equal curriculum space with evolution — continues with the anti-evolution political strategy of making science a religion by reviewing James Hughes’ new “transhumanist” book, Citizen Cyborg. Smith’s writes that Hughes’ outline for genetically enhanced humans is nihilistic and frought with ethical uncertainties, but the meat of his argument is simply inverting insults against traditional religion so that Hughes’ search for a “corporeal New Jerusalem” becomes an acceptable laughingstock. As humor, it’s a bit stale, but the logic-gap’s a little more troubling. If I.D.-proponents are so intent on ridiculing science as just another religion, how can they complain that faith is under attack?