Fair reporting from NYTimes

The official Vatican newspaper has published an article saying that "intelligent design" shouldn't be taught as science, and that there's no conflict between Catholicism and Darwinism-as-science. (Previous post on conflicts between evolution and religion from me here.) I just wanted to point out the NYTimes reporter's fair reporting (as opposed to the unquestioned parroting of what the two sides say, which often gives the illusion of credibility to cranks by giving them equal time). The article quotes a creationist as per journalistic practice, but also includes true facts that undermine him - which is as it should be.

After the Discovery Institute spokesman attempted to dismiss the Vatican article by saying it wasn't official Church policy, the reporter notes

L'Osservatore is the official newspaper of the Vatican and basically represents the Vatican's views. Not all its articles represent official church policy. At the same time, it would not be expected to present an article that dissented deeply from that policy.

And the article includes this refreshing reminder:

There is no credible scientific challenge to the idea that evolution explains the diversity of life on earth, but advocates for intelligent design posit that biological life is so complex that it must have been designed by an intelligent source.

It's not perfect, but credit where due... though I was still more impressed by this article from the Washington Post a few months ago.