Chris Mooney has an explanation of the “accommodationist” position that deserves better than to be buried in a Links Dump:
I don’t see a need to pry into how each individual is dealing with these complicated and personal matters of constructing a coherent worldview. Rather, from a political and public perspective, I want them all to integrate modern science into that worldview. And, from a civil libertarian perspective, I don’t want their religion telling me what to do. (Especially interfering with my access to alcohol on Sundays!)
Insofar as I’m an accommodationist, then, it’s not because I don’t see the incongruity between relying on faith, and looking for evidence, as bases for knowing. Rather, it’s because I know that many very intelligent people are struggling all the time to make their peace with this incongruity in their own way-a peace that works for them. And so long as they’re not messing with what our kids learn-or, again, trying to ram their views down our throats-then good on ’em.
We need to encourage people to make a peace between religion and science that meets their personal needs without turning them into enemies of science or, essentially, theocrats.
(Emphasis in original.)
I really don’t have anything to add to that. Josh Rosenau does, though, and his refresher on the history of the Scopes Monkey Trial is also worth a read.