Evolution vs. Creation: Much Ado About Nothing?

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was first published in 1859, and ever since then, people have been bickering about its ideas, methods, conclusions, and implications. To some extent, such controversy is to be expected. Many revolutionary scientific ideas are met with disdain, criticism, or even violence.

Galileo Galilei spent his life under house arrest simply for espousing Copernicus’ heliocentric world view that the Earth orbits the Sun. At the time, many people believed that the Earth was at the center of the Universe, and refused to entertain notions to the contrary. One reason for this was biblical verse. In several places, the Bible suggests that the Earth is stationary. Psalm 93:1 and 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 all state that, “the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved.” Similarly, Psalm 104:5 says that God “set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.” And Ecclesiastes 1:5 states, “The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises.” Thus, interpreting the Bible literally, Europeans of the 1600’s believed that the Earth had to be stationary, and the whole Universe had to revolve around it.

There may have been another reason, too. It’s far more flattering to think of ourselves as the greatest things in all Creation than as merely tiny specks in the grand scheme of things. Galileo had the courage to confront this bias. He demonstrated that the Earth and other celestial bodies were in constant motion, and he advocated a figurative rather than literal interpretation of the Bible. Now, of course, everyone except for complete rubes knows that the Earth orbits the Sun, which in turn cycles through the Milky Way galaxy, which is itself part of the Universe’s expansion. But it took a long time for that knowledge to gain formal acceptance. Galileo first showed that orbits exist in 1610, and the Catholic Church did not affirm that theory until 1835 – fully 225 years later!

Darwin’s theory of evolution is much the same. At the time of this writing, about 148 years have passed since Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and their colleagues argued that life forms change over long stretches of time. If the controversy over the heliocentric world view is any indicator, I guess we have about another 77 years to go before this theory is finally recognized as correct. But why is that? Why are so many people offended by the theory of evolution? Well, I think there are three main reasons: tradition, pride, and fear.

Tradition is an easy one. People tend to do what they were taught to do, or what they have been doing for a long time. This applies to everyone, whether scientist, religious observer, or otherwise. So, if one grows up believing that evolution is false and that creationism is true, it is simply much easier to continue doing so. There is, of course, a place for tradition, but how we view the development of life on Earth should not be one of them.

Now, what about pride? As I mentioned above, it is far more comfortable to believe that Earth is God’s favorite place, and the people are God’s favorite critters. It just comes naturally to us to think of ourselves as important. In fact, a certain amount of this is probably necessary for psychological well-being. But when it comes to understanding how the physical world is put together, our feelings are more or less irrelevant. Either the Earth orbits the sun, or it doesn’t. Either all life evolved from single-celled organisms, or it didn’t. That’s it. It doesn’t really matter whether we approve of these phenomena or not. Believing or not believing in them does not change the facts. We must objectively show whether they are true or false. If true, we should believe in them, and if false, we should reject them. We will continue to be who and what we are, but we will be enlightened with new information about how the world works. Hopefully, we will use that information to benefit one another. That’s all there is to it.

And now the last reason – fear. Why do I think people are fearful of evolution? The answer may surprise you. I don’t think it actually has anything to do with evolution itself. Rather, I think it has to do with people’s attitudes toward things they perceive as disruptive, dangerous, or even evil. Everybody knows that bad things happen. We know that people and animals suffer everyday. We know that individuals are sickened, injured, abused, or killed all the time. And unless we are either numb or deranged, we are disturbed by this knowledge. Nobody wants anyone to suffer, but we all do. That’s just the way it goes. But there’s always something we can do to combat this evil, and we can always somehow help each other out. We can console each other. We can build shelters, treat illnesses, and punish the wicked. That’s what normal, health people try to do.

Then along comes the theory of evolution. At it’s core, evolution simply states that life forms change over time. There’s nothing too inflammatory about that; life just changes. Now, as I mentioned above, some people’s pride may be hurt by that theory, because they do not want to think of themselves as descended from apes. But again, people can gradually accept even unpalatable scientific facts, so even the knowledge that we come from simpler creatures may not seem so bad after all, as long as we appreciate our current state of development. But how does evolution work? Aha! There’s the evil part! Evolution operates via survival of the fit. That is, the strong go on to reproduce, while the weak die off and disappear. Can there be a more disturbing thought? Apparently not.

Human societies are based on resisting natural selection. If we embraced natural selection, we would simply say, “All of you who are weak, go ahead and die.” Although we may express this sentiment to some degree or other, on the whole, people everywhere shun the notion of abandoning the weak. Our instincts tell us to help one another. Our religions tell us to be kind and generous to each other. Our governments have programs to care for the needy, and our businesses function provide goods and services where they are wanted. People would become wicked if they literally embraced the maxim of “survival of the fittest,” and societies would literally fall apart.

It is this worst case scenario that Creationists are afraid of, and it is this very thing that they are opposing when they oppose education and research in evolution. It actually has nothing to do with evolution itself, and it is unrelated to the question of whether life forms change over time or not. Rather, these people are worried about the moral decay of society, turning away from God and tradition, and opening ourselves up to the destructive forces of apathy, nihilism, and mindless greed.

Actually, I do not blame Creationists for fearing such things, nor would I blame anyone for that. We all worry, to some degree or other, about where our society is heading and what we can do to thwart negative influences. But education and research into evolution are not about adopting the theory of “survival of the fittest” as a maxim or moral compass. Rather, people who study biology simply want to understand how the world works, just like astronomers, chemists, or any other scientists. If our pride gets bruised in the process, well, that’s okay. But let us not fear the implications of the theory of evolution, because no one can tell us to ignore our consciences or turn our backs on our humanity.

Gaddy Bergmann

http://www.TheFeralWorld.com