[shibumi]

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--

I am not suggesting that Thomas Jefferson was debating creationism. I am suggesting that he was expressing belief in a Creator.

It was a natural outgrowth of his weltanschauung just as the thousands of "useful things" that you were referring to were not invented to refute or rebut any particular position in the evolutionary debate. They were both invented for their own ends, the purposes envisioned by visionaries like Jefferson and utilitarians like the boys in the advanced shop class. (And glad we are that those boys are at work!)

If the products of those who believe in a Creator are of no consequence to this discussion, then neither are the "useful things" of which you speak.

[allmendream]

Belief in a creator is NOT synonymous with creationism.

I believe God created the world. I am not a creationist.

The Pope believes that God created the world. The Pope is not a creationist.

The majority of scientists in the USA believe that God created the world. The majority of scientists in the USA are not creationists.

Your answer rests upon two delusions. One, that belief in a creator means that one is a “creationist” under the standard definition of the word, and secondly, that anything someone who believes in a creator produces is therefore a product of “creationism”.

A creationist, while engaged in creationism, have never produced anything of value.

A scientist, while engaged in science, have produced many things of inestimable value.