Emerson Green, “Why I Am An Atheist” (7.6.21), emersongreenblog.wordpress.com.
Some theists accept the theory of evolution in full, such as Francis Collins. Collins believes that evolution is the means by which God chose to create humanity. This is called “theistic evolution.” So a naturalist might take evolution to explain what we observe in biology, and theistic evolutionists believe roughly the same thing, plus God. If we use our razors to subtract that entity, nothing is lost. Nothing is gained by stitching it back on. The aim of theistic evolution is to make theism fit with the data and with our best scientific theories, but it does not confer any sort of theoretical advantage. Furthermore, if we suppose a designer indirectly brought about humanity using evolution by natural selection, that changes everything for the worse. If an omnipotent, omniscient designer intended things to be this way – intended for the history of life to have the character it has – that designer is a psychopath. If he’s not inept, he’s malevolent. And by inept, I don’t just mean inefficient: a benevolent designer, if he isn’t lacking in power, would have to be lacking in skill or knowledge if he’s not intending to cause mass death and widespread suffering. So if we took the theistic evolution route, we’d be multiplying entities unnecessarily, thus making the theory worse, in order to further degrade the theory.
The Amateur Exegete 