Jim Hirschman, 2 August 2007

on Evolution under Pressure, by Dorian Jones

It seems that in this struggle to understand how we humans got here, and what we should teach about it, Turkey has much in common with the U.S. State of Nebraska. There they presently have a law forbidding the teaching of evolution, but rather promote the teaching of "intelligent design". In that state a political struggle continues to try to liberalize educational thinking in order to pay cognizance to the Darwinian explanations.

I have been the beneficiary of both a devout theistic education and an in-depth science education so I can speak to those in the opposing groups with confidence. Scientists of limited theology often are attracted to atheism because the religionists (of similar limited understanding) have pounded them through the years with platitudes and statements of faith that just don't fit reality testing. How can one accept that the "world is only a few thousand year old" when our observations and instruments tell us it is millions of years old?

Some religionists even go so far as to say, "If you don't say you believe this or that, we will expel you from the faith." or worse yet, "We will scourge you, or scar you, or cut off your hand."

Religionists, the devout, if you will, say they reject scientific theory, or even established fact, because science, in this case Darwinism, seems to undermine religious faith. Science "causes confusion". Their faith does, in fact blind them to the beauty and enlightenment of scientific teaching and progress. Thus the devout person, who suffers from limited education, in both science and religion, perceives that science is a threat to the holy life, the rich religious life. It need not be so.

Consider, from the religion side, how much we honor, and revere, the Being we call God (or Allah). Some people so respect this Being they dare not even spell out His name, writing it " G-d " instead. For that reason it seems to me to be disrespectful of that Supreme Being, in whatever language you address Him, to claim you know exactly how He brought one thing or another into being. It seems brash to say, "I don't need to investigate, all I need to do is read scripture." To make such a claim is to set one self equal to God, or equal to Allah, and that is blasphemy.

In some corners of religion it is prohibited even to study how certain processes have come about, as if a discovery by science could negate God. Can some of my readers recall how a recent Pope called physicists to Rome to discuss how the universe began, but then admonished them not to discuss "the first few seconds".

Steven Hawking reminded the Pope, "Those first few seconds were the only truly important part."

Believe me, if you truly believe in God, He has strength, and power and confidence in unlimited amount, He that He encourages the investigative process. In my small way, to study God's methods, His Way, though laboratory investigation, brings me closer to Him, and strengthens my faith.

Now I must address the scientists. I want to stress that, if one be honest, we humans do have a limit to our intellect. We don't know all the answers. That's why we study, and experiment, and share ideas. That's why we propose theories and then, in the light of new knowledge, we refine those theories. We should, in the recognition of the beauty and remarkable interrelationship of all we study, see there is an attractiveness, an awesome respect for what we find, in the lab., in the microscope, or the telescope, on in the, dare I say it, "creation" of DNA spirals. What we find is so awesome that some call it an "intelligent design." How does that put us in conflict with religion?

Why must there be any conflict at all between those of devout science, and those of devout religion? The basis for any conflict is of our own wanton creation. We, of limited understanding (and perhaps also of limited faith), find it easier to be in conflict with each other than to join together in our search for meaning.

Jim Hirschman, Miami