The following are very rough notes
from a talk given to the Adult Forum of All Souls Unitarian Church, Indianapolis
Evolution and Creationism
The Tension Between the Comfortable and the Adventurous
John M. Wendt
2 May 2004
Notes for talk of June 6, 2004
When somebody says that "evolution is compatible with religion", he
is saying that evolution is compatible with his religion.There is a wide
spectrum of religious beliefs, thus a spectrum of compatibilities. The theme
here is the various reconciliations
Evolution is the central idea of astro, bio, geo. Specialization hinders dialog.
S. J. Gould believes
paleontologists should know more biology.
Rudolf Raff,
a developmental biologist at Indiana University, believes biologists should
know more paleontology
Historical approach: history of life, hist of evo thinking.
Plato: senses uncertain (moderns agree, but different resolution); the Cave; divine illumination
Aristotle: earth is center of universe, only lasting motion is uniform in perfect circles
Christianity: New heaven soon, so astro not much studied.
Stars hang from firmament, moved by angels. Cf A's crystalline spheres
Middle Ages in Europe: revealed truth vs. inquiry. Theme of this presentation
St. Thomas
Acquinas: no double
truth
Gospels of Matt, Luke have geneologies, which disagree. Thomas
gives arguments
"Authority of Scripture suffices"
1277: Bishop of Paris, prohibited teaching of 219 Aristotle propositions: split btn theology and natural philosophy
1453: Copernicus, sun at center. Not dramatically more accurate, but more intuitive(?). But contra common sense.
Protestants more upset than Catholics. Church willing to accept as calcualting device.
Kepler - elliptical orbits
Galileo - tides: water in a barge; telescope/printing press. Troubles: Personality, new Pope, Counter-Reformation, writing in Italian (wife of bishop here? 1960s: Sputnik-> bio text -> resurgencence of creo)
House arrest; spent rest of life reinventing physics.
Newton - theory of gravitation ->elliptical orbits
So God removed from astronomy
Geology was next: rock layers as evidence of Noah's flood -> catastrophism ->evolution. God out of geo by 1800.
Darwin: Voyage on the Beagle.
Galapagos: tortoises, finches.
Not first to think of evo, but gave lots of evidence, plus a mechanism.
Uncompromising philosophical materialism.
Variation plus natural selection.. Population always varying in all directions; some directions have slight advantage.
Didn't know where variation came from. Emphasized embryology.
"origin of Species" w/o explaining origins.
Survival of the fittest (Spencer), but not "the arrival of the fittest"
Mendel: crossing peas. Smooth/wrinkled, green/yellow.
Darwin might have known, might have seen as special case.
D. talked about small variations, which M couldn't explain.
1900: Mendel rediscovered. -> division btn geneticists (lab) and field workers
1920ff: T. H. Morgan et al. at Columbia; fruit flies, mutations, genes
Embryology in eclipse: looking under the light
1930s: Neo-Darwinian Synthesis: many genes with small effect. Phenomenalist. Explained evo w/in populations.
1944: DNA as hereditary material
1953: Structure of DNA
Following decades: Genetic code, structure and action of proteins.
1990s: Embryology comes around again, this time as "developmental biology": Embryology, mol bio, fruit-fly genetics. Better concept of effect of genes.
Now can begin to explain "the arrival of the fittest"
Model organisms: yeast, nematode worms, fruit flies, mice, zebra fish, mustard weed. Trying to get to the constants, eliminating noise.
Evo-devo: Using the noise in dev-bio.
History of Life:
3 BYA: RNA ->DNA, cells
Oxygen-using cell invades non-ox, becomes mitochondrion
Same w. chloroplasts
Multicellularity
500 MYA: Cambrian radiation (not "explosion")
Great extinctions
Creationism
Taking science seriously means that you can't take Genesis seriously. Sweeping theme is the varieties of accommodation.
Sporadic fundamentalism in 1920s: Scopes trial
1960s: Effect of Sputnik-inspired bio text
Henry Morris:
The Genesis Flood
Scientific Creationism : Creationism w/o Bible; General Edition, Public Schools
Edition
Gish: "Evolution: The Fossils Say No!"
Spectrum:
Young-Earth Genesis Purists
Contortionists: Creation Research Society": General approach: distortion, quote out of context:
Gould: "Since we proposed punctuated equilibria to explain trends, it is infuriating to be quoted again and again by creationists -- whether through design or stupidity, I do not know -- as admitting that the fossil record includes no transitional forms. Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups."
"Answers in Genesis": honest science, hope for the future, "authority
of scripture suffices"
Kurt Wise, Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee;"an
honest creationist"
Bending Genesis:
Day-age
Gap
Bending Science:
Variable speed of light
General relativity, time dilation
Taking Deep Time at Face Value
Continuous Creation: best support from literal reading of fossil record; cf.
catastrophism. Evolution adds the gradualism
Theistic Evolution
Non-Overlapping
Magisteria
American Scientific Affiliation - God is
mentioned, but ignored as a practical matter
Naturalism/Materialism
Scientific mainstream
Intelligent Design
Called by critics "soft-core creationism", "creationism
in a cheap tuxedo"
Phillip Johnson - Berkeley law, epiphany. Overtly religious and moral
Darwin Retried, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds
Michael Behe
Darwin's Black Box: immune system, blood clotting, bacterial flagellum
Anthropic argument
Johnathon Wells: Moonie: purpose of overthrowing Darwin
Icons of Evolution
Dembski: degrees in theology math . Religious in dicta.
No Free Lunch
"complex specified information"
Very little agreement. Personalities. Cf Kuhn's "chaotic science(?)". But no perceived crisis in evo
"God of the gaps"
"So that's how God did it!"
ID can still do good science
"Teach the controversy"
State challenges
Various state statutes for "balanced treatment"
Arkansas, Louisiana
Indiana has surprisingly good and straightforward standards
Demarcation: bad science is not unconstitutional
Bottom Line
Additional mechanisms: Darwinism is the beginning, not the end
--symbiosis: mitochondria, chloroplasts
--Lynn Margulis, Microcosmos, Acquiring Genomes
From Scientific Data Systems, ca. 1970:
"We have not succeeded in answering all our questions. Indeed, we have
not fully answered any of them. The answers we have found have only served to
raise a whole new set of questions. In some ways we feel we are as confused
as ever, but we believe we are confused on a much higher leverl, and about more
important things."