Jerry Coyne is exasperated with the findings of a scholarly publication that surveyed the beliefs of biology teachers. Coyne interprets the results of this survey as follows:
47% believe in Intelligent Design
28% in [godless] evolution
16% in creationism
9% no opinion
(See: We Suck and Selective Creationists)
He labels the 47% who believe in Intelligent Design (which is he equates with Theistic Evolution) as “Selective Creationists”. So combined with the 16% of traditional creationists, that’s 63% of the biology teachers who are in his view “creationists”.
But what would happen if the 47% of Theistic Evolutionist/Intelligent Design biology teachers realized that Darwin is being refuted by secular scientific literature with every passing day? Will they, as Coyne fears, join ranks with ID proponents? Coyne observes:
Nearly one in two teachers thinks that humans evolved but that God guided the process.
Can we count those 48% of “guided-by-Godders” 0n our side? I agree with P. Z.: the answer is NO. Yes, they do accept that our species changed genetically over time, but they see God as having pulled the strings. That’s not the way evolution works. The graph labels these 48% as believers in intelligent design, and that’s exactly what they are, for they see God as nudging human evolution toward some preconceived goal. We’re designed. These people are creationists: selective creationists.
In view of Coyne’s interpretation, I’d like to salute our “selective creationist” brothers at BioLogos. 🙂