Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails)

Chapter 19: Summary and Conclusion

194 Chapter 19 Summary and Conclusion Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell it to them; then tell them what you have just told them. —Author unknown Then summarize. —Matt Young and Paul Strode This book has been a brief arguing in favor of evolution in particular and science in general, and against all forms of creationism. We began by demonstrating why evolution is important and also why people are, frankly,afraid of it.We noted,in particular,that scientific facts are true whether or not we like them and,indeed,whether or not we understand them.Further, we consider it intellectually dishonest to deny a well-supported scientific theory such as evolution on aesthetic grounds or by appealing to an inappropriate authority. Descent with modification is a fact that is supported by evidence from palaeontology,phylogeny,genetics,and biogeography.The modern synthesis, a combination of Darwin’s theory with Mendel’s genetics and advanced mathematics, provides by far the best explanation for the observed fact of descent with modification. We showed in chapter 3 that creationism is a product of a literal reading of the Bible. We claim that creationism is flatly wrong. We argue later, in chapter 18, that religion and science are not necessarily incompatible, even though creationism and science are wholly incompatible. Indeed, we think that no religious belief is necessarily incompatible with science, as long as it makes no claims of fact that are demonstrably false. In the same way, science cannot truly pronounce religious beliefs to be wrong, as long as those beliefs are not testable by the methods of science. A great many scientists, including evolutionary biologists, are themselves religious. Young-earth creationists deny principles that lie at the very foundation of modern science:descent with modification,cosmology,geology,and radioactivity. Old-earth creationists distort both the Bible and modern cosmology in a vain effort to demonstrate that the Bible is true in the sense of writing actual CH019.qxd 3/26/09 5:34 AM Page 194 Summary and Conclusion 195 history, but they do not deny the principles of science. Intelligent-design creationism is in some sense a branch of old-earth creationism. Intelligentdesign creationists do not deny the antiquity of either the Earth or the universe, and they do not deny common descent.They recognize,for example,that humans have descended from an apelike ancestor. They claim, however, that evolution can go only so far without intervention.Their arguments are flawed in many ways, and, like young-earth creationists, they seem to think that they can discredit the theory of evolution if only they can find something it cannot explain.Further,both intelligent-design creationists and young-earth creationists presume that, if they succeed in discrediting the theory of evolution, then their own pet theory will win by default. Science, as we have seen, does not work that way.Theories do not win by default, and they do not lose because they are not complete; rather, theories win by explaining a preponderance of the evidence and explaining it better than competing theories. Creationists have explained nothing whatsoever. In the unlikely event that evolutionary theory was somehow overthrown, creationism would have a long way to go before it was accepted by the scientific community. In short, creationism is more than a pseudoscience. Intelligent-design creationism, at least, is an attack on all of science, because it condemns the methodological naturalism that is at the heart of the scientific method. If the authors of the Wedge Document have their way, hard science will be replaced by an unspecified theistic understanding of science.We find it hard to understand how science can operate, for example, if God is assumed to step in every so often and provided a harmful parasite with resistance to a drug. Science must assume, with theistic evolution, that the world is regular and God does not step in periodically. For these reasons, we have tried to show in this book not only how creationism is wanting and how pseudoscience works but also how evolutionary biology really works. We heartily recommend that anyone who criticizes evolutionary biology first learn about it. CH019.qxd 3/26/09 5:34 AM Page 195 CH019.qxd 3/26/09 5:34 AM Page 196 ...