Laurie Lebo (author of The Devil in Dover: An Insider’s Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-town America) has a piece at Religion Dispatches on a biologist’s effort to get clergy on board in the fight against fundamentalist creationism: Evolution Sunday: Pastors Celebrate Darwin.

It’s been 150 years since Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, putting forth the concept that natural selection is evolution’s driving force.

Few ideas have been so influential. The field of biology has been built upon Darwin’s theory, with famed geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky going so far as to write, in 1973, that “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.”

Yet, a century and a half after Origin, America is still arguing about whether man is descended from ape-like ancestors or that the Book of Genesis is life’s literal blueprint. While there is virtually no debate over the truth of evolution in the scientific community, fundamentalists remain unswayed and continue their assault on teaching evolution in science class.

Michael Zimmerman, dean of Butler University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Indiana and an evolutionary biologist by training, thinks the best way to change this mindset is for scientists to step back from the debate and hand the reins over to religious leaders.

This Feb. 12 will be Darwin’s 200th birthday. Three days later, as part of Evolution Sunday, a holiday Zimmerman created, pastors around the world will be speaking from the pulpit about Darwin’s contribution to our understanding of the world.

Zimmerman is also the founder of The Clergy Letter Project. The letter in question, now signed by more than 11,000 religious leaders, states that those signing it accept evolution as a foundational scientific truth:

We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

This is an excellent idea, and LGF supports it fully. To quote the sage, Lao Stinky:

Belief in God does not preclude belief in evolution.
Belief in evolution does not preclude belief in God.
Do not trust those who insist otherwise.