A New Ally against Creationism:

The Vatican. No, I'm not kidding. According to an article in the Scotsman, Vatican astronomer Brother Guy Consolmagno - someone who ought to know a little about science and religion, because, I mean, lord, look at his job title! - considers creationism a form of "paganism" because it reduces the Christian God to a kind of weather spirit. In Consolmagno's words:

"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do."

Wow. It's not every day that a representative of the Vatican weighs in against fundamentalism, or in such a counterintuitively mindblowing fashion. Now, I know he's not exactly coming out to endorse evolution, but then again, the Vatican has already formally endorsed evolution. Kinda. Anyhow, this kind of stuff really makes me wonder if the old aphorism that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" might apply to the war against creationism and I.D.

(Link via Boing Boing.)