Improving the understanding and acceptance of evolutionary biology among evangelicals has been an ambitious idea promoted by many. BioLogos, the organization founded by Francis Collins before he became director of NIH, was explicitly charged with this task in the beginning. High profile scientists, theologicians and writers joined to organization, to help promote the goal they believed in. If accomodationism was ever going to work, this would be the perfect opportunity, and I certainly would welcome its success.
Only that the enterprise has been a total fiasco. Not only hasn't the organization made a dent in the acceptance of evolution in the US, it has now backed off from its initial goals altogether. In the words of Darrel Falk, the head of the organization,
"We believe, with near certainty, that God created through the evolutionary process, but our task is not to get everyone to see it our way. Our task is, however, to help everyone embrace the many Christians who already do think this way."
But if backing off the on the raison d'être of the organization were not quite enough, at present we are getting treated to weirder and weirder stuff. It seems that, in order to improve their ties with the fundamentalists, they are bringing over guests with as fanciful ideas as it get, taking the mental gymnastics to whole new levels. Look at this gem, for example:
“that the being who became Adam under the hand of God first evolved but Eve did not. Then they were put into the Garden of Eden as representatives of the whole human race. Their creation in God’s image and their fall affected not only their offspring, but all other contemporaries.”
So why is it that when accomodationists fail to deliver, rather than filing for chapter 11, they stick around and hit new lows? My guess is, as long as you have a benefactor with bottomless pockets, you don't have to shutter your doors if you just keep parroting what they like to hear.
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