There are a lot of interesting topics raised in this thread. In addition to the trial, there is the social gospel, teleology in evolution, and P. T. de Chardin (just to name a few which caught my attention).
On the social gospel I have mixed feelings, and Davis covered the most important reservations. To be sure the social gospel is certainly better than social Darwinism, but of course I reject the reduction of Christianity to such a thing. James 1:27 and Matthew 25:31-46 are crucial but they only half the story. On the other side there is John 6 and Matthew 26:11 making the spiritual side of Christianity more important. In the end, Christianity is not about social reform but the reform of the human heart to reflect the character of God.
Regarding teleology I also have mixed feeling. I love to remind people of Aristotle’s wider understanding of causality in the four causes, but I think the restriction of science to effective (time-ordered) causes is fundamental, though the assumption of material (reductionist) causality has lost some ground in science. And I think many things which have always looked teleological are not as teleological as we thought. So I have suggested phrases such as “intentional in hindsight.”
As for Chardin, in some ways we sound similar with our strong belief in the role of the human mind. On the other hand, our ways of conceiving of this are fundamentally different. Chardin looks too much like a revival of Plato to me – something which I am rather opposed to. He still sees the mind as primarily rational, whereas I think AI is the nail in that coffin. I think the mind is a living organism in the medium of language and rationality is largely just a matter of following as set of rules which is pervasive in nature including matter itself (nothing all that special). Of course we are coming from very different directions. He is a Christian finding value in science and I am a scientist finding value in Christianity. And so I object when it looks to me like he is making Christianity his filter and organizing principle for understanding the universe.