I can't speak for evolutionists, I can only speak for the creationist side.
First, the stakes are extremely high. Emotion that you sense, may reflect the stakes rather than "taking it personally".
But Creationists may take it personally because they feel people are calling God a liar and they love God. It's not unlike saying something bad about your momma.
Evolutionists probably take it personally, because their decision to reject God and live the way they want to hangs in the balance.
Both sides may have invested time and effort into their sides cause and don't want to see that their efforts were in vain.
Indeed they are. Our science programs are going down the drain in this country.
The stakes are the reliability of the scripture. If people doubt the reliability of the scripture, they may reject God's plan of salvation with eternal consequences for them. Therefore it is important to refute erroneous claims and interpretations of data that conflict with scripture.
Just sweeping data under the rug or distorting it so badly does nothing but further undermine Christianity. All this flapdoodle about a 6000 year Earth is just that. This reminds me of the flap caused by the heliocentric ideas back in the 16th century.
People though that it would be the demise of Christianity back then as well. Oops, guess not. Acknowledging a 12 billion year old universe will not either.
Evolutionists probably take it personally, because their decision to reject God and live the way they want to hangs in the balance.
The theory of evolution does not address God one way or the other. Just like the theory of a heliocentric solar system; theory of gravity; atomic theory, etc. does not as well.
That's the Creationists' problem. As you well know, the TOE, like any other scientific theory, is silent on the topic of religion. Sorry to tell you, but not everything is about you and your religion.
Evolutionists probably take it personally, because their decision to reject God and live the way they want to hangs in the balance.
As you well know, people who support the TOE run a wide gamut when it comes to religion, from believing theists to atheists. Your repeated assertions that the TOE exists to refute God are either distortions of reality or outright lies.
Doesn't seem to stop you from doing so, for example:
Evolutionists probably take it personally, because their decision to reject God and live the way they want to hangs in the balance.
Sure, it's all about my guilty conscience.
First, the stakes are extremely high. Emotion that you sense, may reflect the stakes rather than "taking it personally".
I tend to disagree. I think you are *over stating* the importance of this issue. People take things personally because personal things are said on these threads. Even on this, an ostensibly conservative website, a majority of posters do not participate in these threads. This indicates a lack of controversiality. The threads often reach into the many hundreds of posts, but it is largely the same group of people.
Most people, including those people working in the sciences, have no problem holding both religious beliefs and scientific knowledge at the same time. There are many religious people working in the sciences, and there are many people who don't "disbelieve" the scientific theory of evolution working in religious venues. As I have said before and I'll say it again, the only conflict between science and religion is that which people make.
The stakes are the reliability of the scripture.
No, because scripture is not science. The Hebrew Bible (and Christian Bible, too) does not speak to scientific issues. It is silent about such things as deoxyribonucleic acid and the inverse square law. Science, on the other hand, is silent on such issues as morality and ethics. The bronze age Hebrews were not blessed with our understanding of biology, geology, and astronomy. Why modern science should be shoe-horned to fit within the constraints bounded by the limits of the scientific understanding of the bronze age Hebrews is beyond me.
If people doubt the reliability of the scripture, they may reject God's plan of salvation with eternal consequences for them. Therefore it is important to refute erroneous claims and interpretations of data that conflict with scripture.
If there's anything that drives people away from faith, it is not science but hypocrisy on the part of the faithful.
There seems to be a general sense among some people that science drives folks away from faith, despite the fact that many people working in scientific fields, including genetics and evolutionary science, hold religious views. Science and religion are neither mutually exclusive nor diametrically opposed. However, this preconceived notion remains. Thus some people seek to re-define science to fit within their individual religious beliefs. The only real conflict comes about when people pit science against religion, but this is a mis-use of both.
But Creationists may take it personally because they feel people are calling God a liar and they love God. It's not unlike saying something bad about your momma.
If science determines that insects preceeded birds, some people need to understand that this is not designed to impugn their religious beliefs. But people though, when they want to, can find insult in anything.
More dishonesty, really? I'm getting really sick and tired of creationists who have the unmitigated gall to tell me that I am rejecting God simply because my religious beliefs conflict with theirs. Give me a break. You can beleive what you want, that's what the 1st amemendment says. However, don't try to misrepresent my beliefs in order to score debating points, especially when what you are debating against is a scientific theory, and attacking the supports of that theory does nothing at all to attack the theory itself.