Conservatives Against ID

Although attacks on evolution education usually come from politically conservative groups, it’s wrong to get the impression that conservatives are monolithically hostile to evolution. In fact, many prominent political conservatives, including Charles Krauthammer, John Derbyshire, and Larry Arnhart, not only defend evolution, but are worried about the fallout for conservatism when the ID movement finally blows up, as it must. I myself am not sympathetic to reconciliation between evolution and religion, as I explained in this post, and I’m not a political conservative myself. But conservatism is a respectable political position, and it would be a shame if it hitched itself permanently to the plummeting star of Intelligent Design. Conservatives who stand up for evolution deserve praise for their intellectual integrity; it can’t be easy for them to stand up against their friends and allies on such a controversial issue. On that score, congratulations to Timothy Wheeler for his post on the Claremont Institute’s weblog.

Update: Meanwhile, the (non-conservative) Cato Institute’s Andrew J. Coulson has this article on the ID/evolution fight.