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Found this in an article in Nation Review (Dec 23 02, p 49, "True and False Faces" Alex Alexiev) and tweaked it slightly for our purposes and hereby submit some "answers" for consideration:

...key question: What drives a movement ideologically?

Submit:

For Evolution: There is no God as we know Him or there is not enought evidence to prove God conclusively from the Biblical accounts and all the ideas that flow from that, which I believe includes feminism, liberalism, secular humanism, moral relativism, etc.

For Creation: There is a God and all the ideas that flow from that.

...key question: Who supports and finances a movement?

Submit:

For Evolution: The NEA; the media; public institutions of higher learning; some liberal churches (altho that might go toward new agism)

For Creation: Ordinary joes who believe in God; churches still holding to the original; the Founding Fathers and Mothers

Another thing I'd like to say is that I dislike the use of the words Intelligent Designer preferring God. ID was forced upon us in order to argue with evolutionists, which necessarily lowered us to their level, but that's spilt milk, I know.

There is something holy in the struggle.

Everything boils down to the struggle/battle between good and evil. Everything.

...key question: What drives a movement ideologically? Submit:
For Evolution: There is no God as we know Him or there is not enought evidence to prove God conclusively from the Biblical accounts and all the ideas that flow from that, which I believe includes feminism, liberalism, secular humanism, moral relativism, etc.

What a strawman. Evolution, properly understood, is a scientific theory, intended to explain the origin of species once life began. It has nothing to do with atheism, feminism, moral relativism, or any other ideology. It contradicts no religion except the most strictly literal fundamentalist understanding of Genesis. Many believing Jews and Christians have no problem with simultaneously believing that God created humanity and that evolution was the (or a) tool that He used.

Show me who your heros are, show me whose views are closely aligned to yours, show me whose ideas you believe, and I'll show you yourself. Examine closely the roots of your beliefs.

One thing I wish I had time to develop (altho it's quite possible it's been done several times and much better than I could do) is an idea that we have in Algore & Co. an indicator of what happened in the early Christian church. My thoughts in this vein started (in earnest 'cuz there was much evidence piling up before this) when I heard Gore&Co's idea about our COnstitution -- that is was a living document -- and Gore&Co's twisting of the characters and beliefs of the Founding Fathers (including, implicitly, the Founding Mothers) -- they were ignoble elitists -- and Gore&Co's redefinition of the simple words of the founding documents (the 2nd Amd being a perfect example). I correlated this to the difficulties facing the 1st Century Christians. I envisioned the 1st Century version of Gore&Co. I see clearly the beginnings of the movement to discredit our founders and founding documents -- the discrediting taking the form of the arguments we see on this thread and elsewhere in the world in the attempt to discredit Jesus Christ and the 1st Century Christians. How long before the argument that the Constitution is just an ancient piece of paper that we can no longer defend as being real, etc. or that the founding fathers may not have even existed.

Further, for you Tolkien fans, in a discussion I had with my friends' kids (12, 14, 17) this weekend after viewing Lord of the Rings and Two Towers: The kids had much distain for Borameer -- he was the weakest link, he was evil (altho they eventually agreed that he wasn't evil, but rather the ring was evil and he was just weak in his ability to resist), etc. Yet, they had sympathy/pity for Gollum (the poor thing was tortured). I thought it interesting that they had such an intense dislike for the human character (Borameer) whose struggle was perhaps not as evident as Gollum's -- Borameer's struggle manifested itself in the eventual attempt to grab the power/ring from Frodo (which failed and resulted in Borameer's overcoming his weakness, the consequences of which were that he elevated himself to hero status -- a good consequence -- and was killed for his failure -- a bad consequence). I thought Borameer's holding out as long as he did was admirable and I for one saw his struggles in his actions and words, but that struggle was less noticeable than Gollum's outright struggle (the poor noble thing vs. the ignoble human). Anyway, thought it interesting that the kids recognized the struggle in Gollum and took pity, but the human was held to a higher standard and failed in their eyes.

There is something holy in the struggle!

Thank you so much for your posts and for stating your view of the beliefs of the evolutionists versus creationists!

From reading these threads for quite a long time, I see a lot more shades of gray than black and white. There are believers of various types who accept evolution. And their "take" on Genesis 1 varies widely. Likewise, there are adamant evolutionists who maintain an open mind, that there may be more than just the physical.

Some believe diversity of life came from alien seeding, they are as opposed to evolution as one can get. And of course there are the extreme opposites – materialist evolutionists on the one end and young earth creationists on the other.

I strongly support intelligent design for the very reason that I can envision scientific hypotheses which, if proven, would help the intellectually agnostic. That is the overarching reason, however, proof of intelligent design could also lead to recognizing God’s existence in the classrooms and the courts, etc.

However, unless our (Judeo-Christian) God has given us a “copyright notice” somewhere in creation, the American God of the classroom, the courts and the currency will continue to be generic.

I do, however, see two possibilities for such a “copyright notice.” The first is whether the sound waves in the cosmic microwave background radiation which were captured at the moment photons (light) was released actually do say something like ‘let there be light’ in ancient Hebrew dialect. The other would be if the Shroud of Turin were re-dated and authenticated.

My two cents…