An Author and his bona fides are both of importance. This is supposed to be a scholarly journal, therefore the quality and level of the scholarship is important. Prior work and methodology matter as does an author being willing to stand by his/her words and be ready for debate.

And who is to say that these pseudonymous authors exist? How would the scholarly and lay public feel to discover that the alleged authors were really degree-less staffers at AIG and that there was no host of creationist advocates? I have some real doubts that the scientific community is teeming with those who actually believe the Earth stood still and ceased its orbit only to resume, consequence-free, a short while later or that the universe is only 6,000 years old. And yet hundreds or thousands of befuddled folks are reading this psuedo-academic journal and thinking, "See, lots of learned men believe, so I should stop questioning the reality about me, too." Not publishing the names and credentials of authors leaves too much room for scams and other forms of dishonesty (i.e., propaganda). I am not accusing the AiG of doing this but the margin for doing so is too large for comfort.

More disturbing is the idea that these purported faculty members are not being "private" in submitting pretentious "scientific" defenses of a collection of folkloric narratives but are engaged in deceiving their institutions, their employers, peers and students on a daily basis. They must, if they wish to keep their creationism under wraps, be espousing one thing in their classrooms today but holding different beliefs which they intend to foist on unwitting students in some prospective tenured future. That is a form of intellectual fraud, not to mention cowardice. It should not be tolerated.

Maybe they should replace their WWJD? buttons (what would Jesus do?) with more intellectually and morally courageous ones, WWGD? (What would Galeleo do?) If you believe something, speak out; put your reputation where your mouth is.

Disclosure: I count my self an evolutionist and an agnostic.