[MaxFlint]

What IS demonstrated by this conference and by the religious fanaticism of leaders in the scientific community is that Ann Coulter is right. Atheism is a religion led by fanatics. Many of those cult leaders are scientists who insist that their brains and theirs alone are the source of truth.

It's a turf war. Creationism is back repackaged as Intelligent Design. Every time religious people try and push theology into science classes there's a backlash from the scientific community. If believers don't want scientists publicly attacking their beliefs they should stop attacking science. If left to themselves most scientists prefer not to get involved in these controversies.

[Louis Foxwell]

It's a turf war.

I respectfully disagree. What is the proper turf of a person guided by their religious beliefs? Is it not their whole life?

There are, similarly, many people convinced that science offers a path for good living. (Better living through science?)

The turf, if you insist, is not one sided. To the theist, when science dictates morality it is infringing where it does not belong.

This is not a new struggle. There has always been tension between those who are committed to strictily human systems of thought and those who seek truth through belief in God.

The foolish notion that Newton stopped thinking when he acknowledged the presence of God in the universe is a case in point.

The difficulty is not with the conflict. It is with those who wish to depose the opposition.

When scientists make the claim that religious thought is destructive and violent they are treading where angels fear to tread.

For a theist, science is not the source of spiritual life and it does not provide a foundation for moral guidance.

Traditional religious people can tolerate non believers. Atheist fanatics, on the other hand, try to abolish traditional religion from the marketplace of ideas.