THE COLLISION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” – First Amendment to the United States Constitution.?

??????????? The very first words of the Bill of Rights mandates what Thomas Jefferson called the wall of “separation of church and state.”? And this pithy first sentence of our founding document contains both the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. While most superficial discussions call this “Freedom of Religion,” the Establishment Clause precedes the Free Exercise Clause. Freedom from Religion precedes Freedom of Religion. This became important because the attempt to establish a uniform religion in the early colonies – like there had been in the old country – meant that many people had to cope with somebody else’s religion.?

??????????? Is a mandated prayer in public school “Establishment?”? (It is, as it turns out).? Is a coach praying at the center of the football field after a game “Establishment?”? (It isn’t, as it turns out –according to this particular recent Supreme Court case).? And what about the subject of this essay:? forcing the teaching of the Biblical account of Creation alongside the biological explanation of evolution by natural selection?? Is that Establishment?? (It turns out that it is).??? ???????

??????????? I remember that every time that I took an American History class we started with the colonial era and the theme struck me that almost all of the colonists fled Europe because of religious persecution and almost immediately imposed their specific religion on their colony.? The exception was? Roger Williams of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations who emphasized religious tolerance. After the ratification of the Constitution, in the first election for the House of Representatives, Federalist James Madison barely defeated Anti-Federalist James Monroe (despite the attempt of Patrick Henry to Henry-mander Madison’s Congressional District against) with the help of Baptists who objected to Virginia’s official Anglican state religion.? So when Madison wrote the Bill of Rights, he led with the Establishment Clause.? But for two hundred years we have argued about what religious practices fall under the category of “Establishing” ??What religious practices impose a specific religion on those who do not share that faith?

??????????? This question has been a subject of two hundred years of arguments, and of two hundred years of case law.? Today what constitutes an "establishment of religion" is often governed by the three-part test set by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Lemon v. Kurtzman in 1971.? Under the “Lemon test” a law must (1) have a secular purpose; (2) have a predominantly secular effect, and (3) not foster “excessive entanglement” between government and religion.

??????????? I’ve often argued that the United States is so religious because of the Establishment Clause – we are so contrarian that if the government mandated a religion we would reject it; the fact that we are free from religion being imposed upon us fosters the religious community.? Rhode Island’s Roger Williams put it this way: "Forced worship stinks in God's nostrils."?

??????????? Earlier this year Louisiana passed a law that mandates all state-funded schools and universities to display the Ten Commandments. (If you are going to have a religious text I would prefer the beatitudes as more poetic and more pacifist). ?In my mind, this action by Louisiana clearly violates the Lemon test; but it doesn’t matter what I think, it matters what nine Justices currently on the Court think.?

??????????? My interest in this field as a Biologist was sparked by past controversies over teaching evolution in the schools.? When I taught in the college’s Humanities course and in the “Law and Society” course, I led a discussion of this issue.?

It has often and confidently been asserted, that man’s origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.? - Charles Darwin

??????????? I’d call the decision to teach evolution in the public schools a collision between science and religion.? Although most religions and most Christian denominations have formally stated that the idea of evolution by natural selection is compatible with their faith, some denominations do not.? Some churches find evolution not only incompatible, but offensive.? Regardless of the formal opinion of the leadership of churches, it’s an interesting phenomenon that about half of Americans “don’t believe in evolution.”? Evolution by natural selection then becomes the one area of science that they view skeptically and that they critically review.? If would be hard to find another area of science where the opinion of the public differs so dramatically from the opinion of professional scientists.? (Perhaps global climate disruption falls into this category – but that’s a topic for another time.). ???

??????????? Biologists consider evolution by natural selection to be the most important principle in biology and the most important topic for a biology teacher to teach in a biology class.?

"Seen in the light of? evolution, biology is, perhaps, intellectually the most satisfying and inspiring science.? Without that light it becomes a pile of sundry facts -- some of them interesting or curious but making no meaningful picture as a whole.? Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." -? Theodosius Dobzhansky

??????????? This statement by the geneticist Dobzhansky reflects the opinion of professional biologists:? there is no biology without evolution.? And “young earth creationists” must reject virtually all of physical anthropology, most of geology, much of astronomy, and some physics in the pursuit of their faith.? In their view a literal interpretation of the Bible trumps the core ideas of these disciplines.?????

??????????? The scientific community considers evolution by natural selection to be the central idea in biology and a critical concept in the development of scientific literacy of all students.? Scientists consider "The Theory of Evolution" to be as well established as the Atomic Theory, the Theory of Universal Gravitation, and the Theory of Relativity.?

??????????? In 1998, the National Academy of Sciences published the study “Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science.”? In this publication they said:

??????????? “The widespread misunderstandings about evolution and the conviction that creationism should be taught in science classes are of great concern to the National Academy of Sciences, a private nonpartisan group of 1,800 scientists dedicated to the use of science and technology for the general welfare.? The Academy and its affiliated institutions – the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council – have all sought to counter misinformation about evolution because of the enormous body of data supporting evolution and because of the importance of evolution as a central concept in understanding our planet.

??????????? One source of resistance to the teaching evolution is the belief that evolution conflicts with religious principles.? But accepting evolution as accurate description of the history of life on earth does not mean rejecting religion.? On the contrary, most religious communities do not hold that the concept of evolution is at odds with their descriptions of creation and human origins.

??????????? Nevertheless, religious faith and scientific knowledge, which are both useful and important, are different.? This publication is designed to help ensure that students receive an education in the sciences that reflects this distinction.”

??????????? With their last point, the National Academy of Sciences has outlined an interesting discrepancy.? Although the majority of Christian denominations (denominations that cover 88% of Christians) and Jewish groups in the United States formally view the ideas of evolution to be compatible with their religious beliefs, individual Americans are split on this view.? In poll after poll, one half of Americans view evolution as well established, while one-half of Americans question the ideas.? Recent polls show an increase in the evolution skeptics.? Although most denominations view evolution as compatible with their beliefs, there are those denominations that? have strong feelings that their children should not be subjected to this scientific dogma.??? ?

??????????? The contempt that some creationists have for evolution cannot be underestimated.? Creationist Henry Morris (one of the early key figures defining this field) wrote, "Evolution is at the foundation of communism, Fascism, Freudianism, social Darwinism, behaviorism, Kinseyism, materialism, atheism."? Another creationist said, "Satan must without any doubt be the one who has fathered the idea of evolution."

??????????? These strong feelings have been translated into effective lobbying that has created many pieces of legislation (all of which has been eventually struck down).

??????????? In the past, Creationists have used the following approaches to remove evolution from the public school curriculum:

1.???????? State laws to prohibit teaching evolution

2.???????? State laws to guarantee that the biblical explanation of creation receives "equal time" with evolution

3.???????? The development of "Creation Science" - the attempt to find scientific evidence and arguments that Noah’s flood actually occurred, that the earth is young, etc.

4.??????? Arguing that science (and evolution in particular) is a religion

5.???????? The development of the “intelligent design” school that avoids references to God and instead talks about a “designer” in vague terms (in an effort to get around the First Amendment violation of including a discussion of Genesis in a public school science course

6.????????????? State laws that force teachers to tell students that "Evolution is only a theory."

?

??????????? Creationist religious groups initially tried to influence their state legislatures to ban the teaching of evolution.? The U.S. Supreme Court prohibited this ban as unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution (the separation of Church and State).? As a reaction, several groups founded the field of "Creation Science" or "Scientific Creationism."? This discipline gathered evidence for a young earth and a world-wide flood.?? Legislatures then passed "balanced treatment" statues, arguing that evolution and divine creation should be taught side by side so that the students could judge the relative merits of the two explanations of human origins.? The U.S. Supreme Court ruled to prohibit the "balanced treatment" argument; they ruled that “creation science” was not science, but religion and therefore violated the Establishment Clause.? Evolution opponents tried to argue that belief in evolution amounts to a secular religion (and they argued that "secular humanism" is a religion.)? Courts did not find these arguments convincing.? Current laws are now focusing on having statements read in the classroom that "Evolution is just a theory" and pasting a statement to that effect on the inside cover of textbooks.? Several State Courts have struck down these requirements as promoting religion.? The promotion of “Intelligent Design” is the new battle.?

The key court cases that examined the separation of church and state issues in the court:

1925 -? The Scopes "Monkey" Trial - this famous trial matched William Jennings Bryan against Clarence Darrow in a challenge to a Tennessee law that prohibited teaching evolution

1968??? Epperson v. Arkansas - Heard in the U.S. Supreme Court Case, this challenged the constitutionality of an Arkansas statute prohibiting the teaching of evolution.? The Court struck down this law.?

1981 ?? Challenge to the Balanced Treatment for Creation Science and Evolution Science Act - Arkansas Judge William Overton ruled "[Act 580] was simply and purely an effort to introduce the Biblical version of creation into the public school curricula."

1987??? Edwards v. Aguillard - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the "balanced treatment" approach for "Creation Science" (the Court forbade requirements that the teaching of evolution must be accompanied by "creation science)"

??????????? While this controversy seems to have been pushed aside by others, the Louisiana case indicates that it’s a matter of time before new legislation pops up and continues to produce new case law.? Court cases will continue to challenge the two approaches used by creationists, “just a theory” approach and the intelligent design approach.??

??????????? In the Alabama public schools, the following is pasted on the inside of the biology texts:

"This textbook discusses evolution, a controversial theory some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things, such as plants, animals, and humans.? No one was present when life first appeared on earth.? Therefore, any statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact."

Texas required a similar statement until 1963.? (This is significant since Texas has always been a huge market for high school textbooks and the textbook publishers often "toned down" or omitted discussions of evolution to please this component of their market.)?? It’s interesting and ironic that evolution is shunned in these Southern rural agricultural states where the economic health of crop plants depends upon an understanding of the evolution of pesticide resistance in insects.?

The prominence of Texas and other Buckles on the Bible Belt in the textbook market continues to drive cautious wording.??

??????????? The battle continues in science textbooks.? In a 1996 geology text called Earth Science published by Heath, the Teachers Edition carries the following statement:

"In the sections of Earth Science that deal with origins and evolution, scientific data have been used to present this material as theory rather than fact."

And in 1996, a law was introduced into the Tennessee legislature that would have made teaching evolution "as fact" a crime (presumably with the offending teacher could be fired or fined or receive jail time).?? The sponsor of the bill was State Senator Tommy Burks, whose home district is only 45 miles northwest of Dayton, Tennessee, the site of the Scopes trial in 1925.

HB 2972/SB 3229 (1996): "No teacher or administrator? in a local education agency shall teach the theory of evolution except as a scientific theory.? Any teacher or administrator teaching such theory as fact, commits insubordination and shall be dismissed or suspended as provided in Section ...."?

As the national media descended upon Tennessee over this, and the legislature started to get the feeling that they were becoming national laughingstocks, the enthusiasm over the bill faded.? It was defeated on March 28, 1996 in the Tennessee Senate 13 - 20.?

??????????? Scientists would be happy to have the idea of evolution by natural selection considered a theory.? It is.? In science, the term "theory" is used differently than in common speech.? In science, a theory describes a unifying idea that is universally accepted . . . known to be true.? The Atomic Theory.? The Theory of Universal Gravitation.? The Theory of Electricity.? Theories are as certain as you can be in science.? A theory is better than a fact.

The California Scientific Curriculum uses this definition of theory, which is as good as any:?

A theory is a logical construction of facts and hypotheses that attempts to explain a range of natural phenomena.

??????????? The groups who oppose teaching evolution in public schools vary in their beliefs, but share a belief in the literal interpretation of the bible.? In debates with scientists, the creationist side is represented by two main groups, the Institute for Creation Research and the Creation Research Society.?

??????????? The field of creationists vary in how strictly they interpret the Bible.? As philosopher Robert Pennock explains:

“[T]he Bible is meant to be read literally not only on matters of faith and spirit but also on all matters about the physical world that are mentioned.? The creation of the world took six twenty-four hour days.? God did not create human beings using physical, evolutionary processes, but formed Adam directly from the dust of the ground and Eve from Adam’s rib.? Jonah really was swallowed and lived for several years in the belly of a great fish.? Methuselah in fact lived nine-hundred years.”??

??????????? But that brings up the problem of considering the Genesis account of creation literally – there are two creation stories in Genesis and they differ incompatibly in details.?? These two accounts in different Chapters of Genesis are drawn from different sources and stitched together, differ in their mechanism of creation, their order of creation, their writing style, and even the name that they call God.? The Documentary hypothesis credits these differences with different authors (or teams of authors) at different times, the J source and the Priestly source.

??????????? The point is that the Bible should be an ethical and moral guide and not a natural history text.? Science and religion should stay in their swimlanes.? Biologist Stephen J. Gould called this NOMA, the nonoverlapping magisterial, that should coexist in peace – but stay independent and not cross-over.

??????????? Science focuses on the natural world and is data-driven.? When someone says, “I don’t believe in evolution” they miss the point.? It isn’t a belief, it’s a matter whether you find the evidence to be compelling.? Opposition against evolution is a belief – it is a presupposition that tries to stuff a fact-like square peg into a pseudo-evidence round hole.? There is no biology without evolution – or geology, or astronomy, or … science.?

??????????? Science is important for our intellectual and economic development.? But we need philosophers and theologians to tackle the novel ethical dilemmas that are coming faster than anyone can judge.? I really want to start a class titled “Modern Biology for Theologians” – the world needs to recruit people who think about right and wrong every day.

??????????? ?The United States is a religious country – I maintain that this is because of the separation of church and state – there is a cause and effect relationship between this characteristic of the country and the legal structure of the country.? We should celebrate this.?

?

?