Happy Birthday, Darwin

Yesterday was Darwin Day, which celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of the revolutionary scientist.

My alma matter, Harding University, invited Ben Stein to speak this week on his movie, Expelled, which argues that Intelligent Design is being suppressed as an alternative theory to evolution by entrenched scientific powers.  This subject has been written 0n extensively, so it is not necessary to fully critique the position, but here are a few things.

The most effective critique I have ever read of the Intelligent Design movement was The Language of God, by Francis Collins, the conservative evangelical former director of the Human Genome Project.  Collins writes about his own faith and how it meshes with what he knows about science and the physical world.  He presents an interesting perspective, especially since he played such an important role in one of the most significant scientific achievements in history.  He critiques the atheistic view that sees no room for a transcendent power, but he actually saves his harshest criticism for proponents of Intelligent Design and especially Young Earth Creationists.

Collins effectively argues that ID and YEC proponents present more of a threat to the survival of Christianity than their atheistic counterparts do.  Atheists typically are not aggressive proselytizers, nor do they have a comprehensive worldview that will adequately substitute for the Christian one for most people.  ID and YEC advocates, however, are making their own religion obsolete by tying it to myth and misunderstanding.  The more Christianity shifts over to their side given our modern scientific understandings, the more the whole religion looks silly and primitive instead of something that can adapt to new understandings.

Collins’ position itself debunks the dichotomy that people like Stein want to impose on the world.  There are more than two narrow ways of understanding the universe, and there are some aspects of our modern understanding that are impossible to rationally avoid.  Christianity must adapt itself as a philosophy of life and as a religion because it cannot prevent scientific progress.

NPR ran a story on Darwin that I heard earlier in the week.  In it, it acknowledged that the fight between Creationism and Evolution is a social fight.  The scientific debate is essentially nonexistent, but many people still feel uncomfortable with this new knowledge because they are not sure how to fit it into their Christian worldviews.

I would highly recommend The Language of God, but I’m not sure I can say the same for Expelled.  Oh, and happy birthday, Darwin!