If believers see the hand of a God in evolution, they are absolutely in conflict with the science, one hundred percent. The whole concept of evolution is predicated on the fact that it isn't "driven" by any goal-oriented or intelligent mechanism. Impose that on it and you've ditched the whole bloody theory. Many well-meaning people of faith have tried to reconcile their belief in a God who made us all with the science of evolution, but I'm afraid the science of evolution is simply not interested. "I believe in evolution but I also believe that God kicked it all off and runs it" is simply a massive and abject intellectual copout, religion trying to be nice to uninterested scientists.

Interesting that a man who believes in evidence-innocent mythology, and lives his life by it, can think that another bloke, who simply asks for evidence and who has stated many times that he doesn't know whether there's a God or not, needs a shrink. You may not need a shrink yourself, Joe, but you do need a surgeon to get that bullet out of your foot.

Now for some Wacko-style misrepresentation from a surprising source.

Mr. Shaw seems to be a good example. And Mr. Blandiver and Mr. Musket approach it. Science and scientists generally take a far more honest and far less doctrinaire approach, and I almost always accept the findings of science. Real Science and real scientists have no business proving or disproving the existence of God.

I wish to point out that I have said on many occasions that I am not interested in trying to prove or disprove anything. Science does not set out to prove things, and I certainly can't disprove God and I don't even want to try.

It's really difficult for me to discuss religious belief and practices with the likes of Shaw, Blandiver, and Musket, because they are only able to understand faith in fundamentalist terms.

I have said in the last few days that I care not a jot what private beliefs people entertain and that it is perfectly possible to be both a believer and a scientist. I could spend all day telling you what I think YOU don't understand but I won't and I'll thank you for reciprocating. As a not entirely irrelevant aside, I'll have you know that we militant atheists spend a lot of time thinking about what belief means to people. I wouldn't assume that people of faith have any sort of monopoly on understanding what faith means. Sometimes the view is clearer from outside.