Alun discusses a new book by Graham Hancock, a ditzy New Age pseudoarchaeologist with some of the same biases as our ID crowd. Does this sound familiar?

Could it be that human evolution is not just the "blind", "meaningless" process that Darwin identified, but something else, more purposive and Intelligent, that we have barely even begun to understand?

That could have come straight out of a Discovery Institute press release. The lack of positive claims by ID creationism, the gaping hole left by their reluctance to specify any features of their Designer, opens the door to all kinds of interesting characters, like Chariots of the Gods-style crackpots, some of whom may be more rhetorically persuasive than old school Puritans and Dominionists. Alun explains that Hancock is "perfectly capable of philosophically mugging the Intelligent Design movement."

There’s an excellent paper “Why Creationists Don’t Go to Psychic Fairs” by John H. Taylor, Raymond A. Eve and Francis B. Harrold in Kendrick Frazier’s book Encounters with the Paranormal. It shows that the credulity and tolerance of ideas that exists in the New Age culture is anathema to the intolerance of the fundamentalists. The last thing a Southern Baptist preacher will want to say is “Some people believe in the Christian God, but you never know you might want to sling a few prayers Rama’s way too.” So far by trying to open up science to their ‘alternative’ the Creationist lobby have been beating the scientists with a New Age snake. I think Graham Hancock might be about to demonstrate why that is so dangerous. Can a Christian movement really promote a theory which seriously suggests that God was one of many beings that you can contact with powerful drugs and pagan rituals?

We're seeing some signs that the culture warriors of the Discovery Institute may be concerned about this problem in general. They have to be careful that no one think Space Aliens did it, but not so loud about it that they expose their religious bias. They're also trying to separate themselves from the Old-Timey Gospel Hour folks. This is what happens when one has no process and no evidence and no rigor, and are trying hard to conceal one's actual religious agenda—there is no substance, only vacuum, and any ol' garbage can freely move in to fill the space. And in the case of the Discovery Institute, it's their stealth religion garbage that's at risk of being displaced.

It would be interesting if ID were hijacked by New Agers. Not only would it strip the ID creationists of most of their political leverage (a good thing!), but then I'd have to sit here writing crotchety rants against those danged crystal-waving, fairy-believing, sky-clad hippie libruls. My head would 'splode (a bad thing, I'm pretty sure).