When I have head Ward and Brownlee speak, they (especially Ward) are rather embarrassed or perhaps amused by the attention that their book has garnered among the religious right.

As to the other gentleman you name, he is a graduate of UW, but is not faculty. You can see this on:

http://www.astro.washington.edu/dept/people.html

I would say that this seems to be rather a tempest in a tea pot. Ward and Brownlee state numerous times that they expect that life is common in the universe, their hypothesis is that advanced life is rare.

Your posts here seem to be rather overblown.