… to busy folk who have heard everything they know from trolls or casuistical theologians (the “no conflict between faith and science” crowd*):
Recognizing these evidentiary problems, Materialists invoke a rule of procedure to make their case. They ordain that all the evidence of design will be suppressed because it implies a supernatural cause. One is reminded of a lawyer who invokes the hearsay rule to suppress a dying declaration implicating his client as the cause of death. The Design Theorist replies that science must ignore the implications of the evidence in seeking to explain where it leads. This is particularly necessary in a historical science that depends on competition rather than direct observation and experimentation to test subjective historical narratives that unavoidably impact beliefs about religion, ethics, morals and even government. If the evidence of design is not allowed on procedural grounds then there is no need to engage in the investigation at all. The answer to the question— where do we come from, has a pre-ordained answer—only a material cause. The explanation can never be credible because it is not the product of the evidence, rather it is the product of a decree. Rather than an explanation for the cause of life, it becomes an ideology used to support particular religious beliefs and world views.
Thoughts on the handout?
* No? Really? Whose faith? What science? If there is no detectible evidence of design, as theistic evlutionsts claim, what is the multiverse crowd trying to explain away by claiming there is an accidental infinity of universes?