In reply to Coel Hellier:
> But the survey doesn't ask that question! The survey only asks whether people think that religious people would have some degree of difficulty reconciling scientific evolution with their religious beliefs.
> If Christians *don't* have difficulty reconciling evolution with their beliefs then they basically haven't thought about it. That doesn't mean they need to be full-blown creationists, but they do need to scheme up some fudge such as "theistic evolution".
I read this earlier and left it, and I'm sure I'll regret coming back for another go..!
As a, for want of a better expression, Darwinian I realise that anything else is essentially a fudge. However, that doesn't mean it automatically appears so to the muddle-headed believer. I think it's possible that some Christians don't have difficulty reconciling evolution with their beliefs (in their own minds)! Now, either they don't really understand natural selection and the rest of it (quite likely, granted, but either way they don't have to be wilful about it) in which case they don't see the conflict, or, their beliefs are far from the kind of faith that many atheists assume all believers must espouse. I confess, not only did I not read the source material properly or your, clearly well-structured, rebuttal, I didn't even really read what Rowan W or anyone else had to say about the fudge. Just to say, I don't think it's a given that all people who call themselves Christians necessarily believe anything outwith the current scientific paradigm. They just don't like to tell all their friends.
These things take time, don't they. People don't always change their minds / beliefs in the face of one key piece of evidence or one good argument. They come to a new position after the debate, shifting ground slowly. I think a lot of theists and nearly former theists are also a bit concerned about what kind of world they live in without their former constructions to make sense of human society.
Personally, I feel like I live in an extended state of cognitive dissonance about the idea that there is really anything to form the basis of an 'anchored' human society now. When we see what we are really, then our 'values' become in many ways meaningless; just the emergent expression of individual traits. There is no moral framework. Gosh, I need to go to bed.