Is atheism a scientific perspective?

[Esquilax]

It can also be pointed out that Darwin's motivations do not affect the validity of his theory.  If it was true that he came up with the theory of evolution out of a desire to mislead the world and move them away from god, the theory still needed to be testable and falsifiable to be a legitimate scientific theory.  If Darwin loathed god with all of his energy, he still needed to show his work and allow it to be reviewed by his peers and checked for accuracy and errors.  If ID is simply creationism rebadged, it can still be put forth for scientific scrutiny via the scientific method and the system of peer-review.  Motivations make for a good story, but they do not matter.  Results matter.

Very true. I just tire of people like AAA, blithely accusing anyone who disagrees with him of bias while completely ignoring the lengthy and verifiable history of bias and dishonesty at the beating heart of ID. He and every stripe of creationist will happily impute malevolent or dishonest motives into atheists and scientists and then walk away as though the job had been done, while studiously avoiding any form of research as to the motivations behind their own camp.

It's kind of an insult to injury thing, where we both have to deal with a non-scientific claim of intelligent design that leans transparently on arguments from ignorance and claims that cannot be supported, while also having our reputations and research acumen impugned by people who wouldn't know decent epistemology if it bit them on the ass.