I have been out all day, and now, the rainy sky was beginning to darken.  Birds are being replaced by bats, which swoop low over our heads.  In a single day, I have seen ninety-four birds I have never seen in my life, four new mammals, and three new reptiles.  It is almost night, and yet no one has the slightest desire to turn back.  We are strangers brought together by the simple and timeless joy of our species.

The men and women I am with today are all naturalists, or educators, or biologists.  These are men and women of science.  In your writings, you repeatedly state that a belief in evolution necessarily leads to atheism.  You said, "But when addressing certain life and world views, it has been my experience (hundreds if not thousands of times) that an infinite regress of an ungodly life and world views parks itself at Darwin and his view of beginnings."

Pastor, nothing could be further than the truth, and your threats about science leading to ungodliness seems, silly, especially here among company that are religious and scientific.  In fact, in this modern world you and I live in, shouldn't we consider the importance of science to our religion? Carl Sagan said it best, “Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.”

With science, we can imagine and understand the magic of our world and our universe in ways our ancestor's would never be able to comprehend.  What a great source of spirituality for our religions to see and to know the complexity of our world – to see and to know and maybe to even understand a glimpse of creation, unraveled slower, but much more marvelously than the Old Testament explained it...if we read it literally.

But evolution doesn't just offer to enrich our spirituality.  Its existence, and our understanding of it, is one of the most critically important concepts of our age.  We are now facing the reality that we are about to lose many of the world's species.  Much of the creation will be gone forever.  The study and environmental applications of evolution are essential and irreplaceable tools in the challenge to save our world's species. 

That pastors like you are using pseudoscience to confuse voters and politicians about the power and legitimacy of the theory of evolution is to take part in something very, very bad.  Something whose impact on history may prove far more horrible than any holocaust, any genocide and any war.  And nobody's God wants that.

Pastor Paul, I stand here at the end of the day in one of Earth's most diverse valleys. A place like no other, with brilliant plants blooming in the mist, and with elegant animals gliding among the trees. It is here in Panama where some of the first of these amazing animals will perish, forever. And they will perish because politics, and confusion, and a lack of understanding of the scientific implications delayed action.

I urge you to reconsider your support for the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed and retract your statements of support to your congregation.

Letters from the Canopy will continue in the future, with more letters to the pastor. Any response from the pastor will be included as well.

You can read more about the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed at this exhaustive wikipedia entry.

The Natioanl Center for Science Education hosts a website on the documentary as well.