I don’t think scientists should get a free pass on their ignorance of theology. I was merely describing, not prescribing.
Scientists are “highly educated”, but only in a very narrow field. And even if a physics major had time to take an intro to philosophy class in college, often at secular philosophy departments the faculty tends to ignore anything between Plato and Descartes. So there is unsurprisingly little awareness of the Christian theological tradition, even for Christian scientists.
But is it a scientist’s fault that today’s society regards them as oracles of knowledge, asking them to speak beyond what they know? Collins wrote his book with what he knew - and it spoke to a lot of people. I’m not sure it would have been much impactful if he had made it theologically more sophisticated. Less people might have been inclined to read it. I would rather have 10 believing scientists with a simplistic (but orthodox) theology than 1 believing scientist with a very sophisticated one. How many people have read Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique?
This is surprising to me. In my experience theistic evolutionists can be theologically simple-minded, but I’ve rarely encountered one who dismisses philosophy and theology like you describe, unless if they’re not orthodox in the first place. Can you give me an example? I don’t remember anything in The Language of God, for example, trashing the entire discipline of theology, except for example in reference to YEC.