Cofty,
At the core of evolutionists and atheists is the hatred of irreligiousness and irrationality of religions. Typical example is modern day atheism High Priest Richard Dwakin's God Delusion. Book speaks more on religious irrationality than the process of evolution.
Many people like The Theory of Evolution because they too hate the irrational stories of religions and luxurious life-style of religious leaders even though theory cannot explain too great things such as origin of universe, origin of life, origin of consciousness ...
Sir Alfred Ayer, Howard Storm, Antony Flew were all once fundamaterialists. Once on their own, they left their blind belief on matter.