“I think having students hear criticisms of any theory is a great idea,” Behe said. “I think in one respect, it’ll mean it’s permissible to question evolution. For odd historical reasons, questioning evolution has been put off-limits. If Kansas can do it, it can be done elsewhere.”
What a moron this Behe is. It is totally permissible to question evolution, but you have to do it with science. And that's where these knuckleheads like Behe fly off the tracks. I don't understand how someone can be so (dumb? brainwashed?) as to expect that the scientific community should renounce the pursuit of science in order to accommodate someone's religion. It's astounding.
Behe ain't dumb. I think his statement translates to: "It's great to question prevailing theory, especially if it involves spending some amount of school district money on my book, or otherwise keeping my name in the media so that aforementioned book stays prominently displayed at Barnes and Noble."
Well, you don't "have" to question it with science. From a religious vantage point it's certainly valid to question evolution (or anything else) with religion. And it can be questioned with philosophy, or from an ethical standpoint, etc.
How far you might get in that approach is another matter, as is whether you're going to make any headway with someone who doesn't share your premises.
The real problem, however -- and I think this is the point you're actually making -- is that Behe et al are *pretending* that they're using science to challenge evolution, when they're actually basing their objections on something else. They're dishonestly trying to give their religious misgivings about evolution the procedural authority of real science, in order to deceive the public about the validity of their "rebuttal". They're falsely claiming that their religious/philosophical dissatisfaction with evolutionary biology has met the high standards of scientific discovery and validation, when it most certainly has not.