Is it possible to be a good Christian and sincerely believe that a bigger welfare state and higher taxes to fund it are the best way in a complex modern society?

It’s possible, but not likely. Confiscatory taxation enforced by threat of imprisonment is “stealing,” a practice strongly frowned upon by our creator. If all Christians and Jews tithed their income, every poor person would be cared for.

You devote four of your eleven chapters to evolution, and say that Darwin’s theory of evolution is “about one notch above Scientology in scientific rigour.” Did God cause evolution in the sense that all the species are related to each other but God guided their descent?

God did not “cause” evolution because evolution doesn’t exist. Thus, for example, He also didn’t “cause” unicorns. My faith and reason tell me that God created the world and I’m not particularly interested in the details. I’ll find out when I meet my maker.

Can there be such a thing as “intelligent design” without a divine designer?

Yes! Cambridge astrophysicists Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, as well as Francis Crick, winner of the Nobel Prize for his co-discovery of DNA, didn’t believe in God, but realised Darwin’s theory was a crock. In order to explain the evidence of intelligence throughout the physical world while excluding God, they concocted theories about intelligence being transported from outer space to earth on comets or spaceships. — Beliefnet.com