Editorial 1.11, by Deirdre Helfferich Surprise! Religion and Science are Different Fish Recently I ran into somebody on campus handing out free copies of a book entitled Refuting Evolution. “Oh, God,” I thought (appropriately enough). Yep. All about all the holes in evolutionary theory and how creationism is science. Fiddlesticks. Well, not completely. Theory, being what it is, is subject to improvement. Theory is not, however, hypothesis. This idea seems to be confusing to those who have decided that True Belief is better than Using the Brains God Gave You. I wonder why evolution is under attack so often from religious groups. There isn’t anything inherently contradictory in the idea of a divine being as origin and creator of the cosmos and the ideas of evolution, continental drift, plasma physics, or black holes. What’s the problem? Why shouldn’t the gods go right on creating? (Notice that I am arguing the modern creationist’s point: God is still at work, guiding the process, and none of it is this natural selection stuff. It’s all part of Her Plan.) So? The scientist and the creationist are asking two different questions. The scientist wants to know how and what, and the creationist wants to know who and why. The scientist wants new information; the creationist, verification of an already-decided tenet of religion. Another problem seems to be one of time and literal-mindedness. God did it all in six days, about 4,000 years ago (if I’ve got my information right), and evolution requires a heck of a lot of time, which would muck up all those quickie creation stories. Any evidence to the contrary was planted by you-know-who. This time frame would come as quite a surprise to the ancient Chinese, who were building cities and writing books about 6,000 years ago, and it is certainly a hard sell to convince geologists who study rocks that are hundreds of millions of years old. Genesis was always one of my favorite books in the bible, but I never let it interfere with my capacity to reason. Creation is supposed to be a snap for God, mysterious and wonderful and quick, like fast food. Problem is, I don’t think that view has much in the way of spiritual sustenance to recommend it. Mysterious and wonderful, sure, but what’s so all-fired important about quick? And hasn’t anybody out there heard of metaphor, that time-honored technique used by storytellers for millennia? Any good myth-maker can tell you that reading things too literally can actually get in the way of higher truth. Ah, but I’m treading on dangerous ground here. I’m messing with the concept of faith. And that is the basic problem with creationism as science. Creationism is a theological doctrine that ascribes the origin of matter and of distinct species of animals and plants to acts of creation by God. Being a doctrine, it is not questionable, nor is it subject to improvement. Divine revelation, perhaps. But this isn’t science. Every hypothesis or theory is at risk of being thrown out or modified, if new evidence warrants. Darwin’s original theory has been amended numerous times. The scientific method is the systematic employment of doubt in the service of truth. An article of faith just is, and that’s that. But faith is not the same thing as the willful blindness of the True Believer. Faith is like courage: it continues not by denying those things that seem to contradict one’s view, but by accepting them, expanding one’s understanding of the truth in the process. It takes courage to have faith. All it takes is stubbornness to believe. That’s why you can’t reason with a zealot. Reason has nothing to do with it. I found it very disturbing that the forces of unreason were nesting on a university campus, further evidence of the irrational religiosity that is overtaking the country. The candidates for school board in this last election were not embarrassed to publicly state that they thought creationism should be taught alongside science in the schools. Not only does this point to an unreasonable enthusiasm for faulty logic, it reminds me that we really aren’t so very far from the days of the Inquisition or the European witch craze, in which nine million people died. Those started out slowly, too, and they were directed at minority religions and intellectuals. Reasoned thought, after all, is the greatest enemy of the forces of darkness, which depend on fear and pride to turn thinking human beings of faith into mindless zealots who will do anything in the name of God. | ||
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