How is it that the 'basic concept of evolution is not in doubt' when the things that were called facts are proven wrong, only to be supplanted by other 'facts' which are subsequently proven wrong?
Sort of reminds me of Dan Rather's claim that the story of the President's being AWOL was still true, even though all CBS's 'facts' were revealed to be wrong.
Illogical, contortionist thinking, IMO.......
Conservatism has been on the steady rise for a decade or two now. It has done so because it has found truths that the left either ignored, or denied.
Affirmative Action doesn't work, and is in fact discriminatory itself.
The Welfare State does not help people over the long run.
Appeasement of tyrants is counterproductive.
"Conservative Values" is a demonstrably superior philosophy to maintain a viable civilization.
The Earth will manage itself just fine without "help" from the environmentalist movement.
The UN is the biggest criminal organization the world has ever seen.
All of these truths can be "proven". Some of these can be argued over, but basically the weight of evidence is on the conservative side, and we are winning politically as a result.
But when conservatives bring in "creation science", it is an Achilles heel, because belief in it can easily be shattered by the overwhelming weight of evidence. Once conservatives are demonstrably "wrong" about something, they can never again regain the image of always having truth on their side that they now have.
I predict that sometime in 2008, when the election cycle is hot and we have decided on a candidate, the Discovery Channel, and a host of others will have entire series designed specifically to destroy the believability of ID, and secondarily of faith itself, and will tie both to Republican and conservative politics. It will be a full court press by the media, and they will have the evidence to easily prove their case, except among those who refuse to see.
Conservatives will be seriously damaged as a result. So will the faith of many people, which is a tragedy, because I think we need more faith in God, not less.
The only way to immunize against either tragedy is for Christians and other believers to recognize that God could, and I believe did, create evolution first.
By definition, there can be no conflict between God's word, and God's creation. And when the question is "how does God's creation operate", the proper place to look is in that creation, by the means of science, and not to lock yourself into a particular interpretation of God's word that disagrees with what we see in His creation.
God's creation cannot disagree with His word. Only humans can disagree with how they interpret one or the other. And since there's only a few hundred words in God's word about the creation, while we have the whole of the creation itself at our fingertips to study, I believe science on this matter, and not a particular interpretation of Genesis by some, but not all, Christians.