The recent brouhaha concerning Mike Behe at BloggingHeads got me to thinking. (I do that from time to time.)
I finally figured out why the incensed Darwinists who resigned from BH did so: They are the equivalent of alchemists who have been confronted with knowledge about the nature of the nucleus of the atom.
Alchemists thought that they might be able to turn lead into gold through chemistry. (After all, lead is heavy and dense, and gold is too.) Darwinists propose that inanimate matter — coupled with the laws of chance, chemistry, etc. — can produce information-processing systems of incredible sophistication.
The alchemist and the Darwinist have been seduced into pursuing analogous rainbows, based on a fundamental misunderstanding about how things work.
Chemistry will never turn lead into gold, because the nucleus of the atom must be altered to achieve that goal. Chemistry can only affect the bonding of atoms through the interaction of the electrons orbiting the nucleus. Alchemists were unaware of this fact, and thus their dream was unattainable in principle.
Chemistry, chance, and natural selection will never turn matter into information-processing systems, because design is required. The dream of the Darwinist is unattainable in principle — thus his hostility and desperation.