Creationists Versus Evolution: A Paradigm of Science and Society Interaction

CREATIONISTS VERSUS EVOLUTION: A PARADIGM OF SCIENCE AND SOCIETY INTERACTION RIVERS SINGLETON, JR.* I beseech you, in the boweh of Christ, think it possible you might be mutaken . —Oliver Cromwell Since the early twentieth century in this country, a basic conflict has existed between proponents of fundamentalist religious views of biological origins (creationists) and modern science. At times, this conflict has been quiescent; at others, it has been agitated and vituperative. In the early 1980s, the conflict went through one of its active phases, generating a great deal of heat and vitriol at the local, state, and national levels and raising classical issues. Like earlier outbreaks, the recent creationist controversy has had a profound effect on school textbooks and on local school science curricula. Several new and different issues about science and its method, however, have emerged from the most recent conflict. In certain respects, the present controversy now seems to be entering another quiescent phase. The debates at the state and national levels seem to have stilled, although the U.S. Supreme Court is currently hearing an appeal on the legality of legislation in Louisiana. Despite its present passive nature, however, the debate has raised serious questions about what ought to be taught in our educational systems and who should make these curricular decisions. The debate also involves profound questions about the nature and limits ofboth science and religion. For both ofthese reasons, it can serve as a paradigm of the interaction of science and society, of which science is but one component. ConseThe author thanks his colleagues, D. Heyward Brock, Mary Williams, and David Smith, for their many helpful discussions of this topic and for their critical reading of the manuscript . *School of Life and Health Sciences, Center for Science and Culture, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716.© 1987 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 003 1-5982/87/3003-0538/$0 1 .00 324 I Rivers Singleton, Jr. ¦ Creationists versus Evolution quently, this seems an appropriate time to reflect on the historical development of the conflict, on the claims made by both sides, and on what the controversy has meant in the interaction of science and society. Historical Developments Since E.J. Larson [1] has published an excellent detailed history ofthe legal aspects of this controversy, I will touch only on its highlights here. George Marsden [2, 3] has correctly pointed out that the conflict between science and creationism is grounded in a Baconian view of science held by the creationists. Modern-day creationists are not original in their view of science. WilliamJennings Bryan, one of the more vivid and wellknown opponents of the teaching of evolution, claimed that Darwin's ideas were unscientific because they were not derived by means of Baconian methodology. Two aspects of this Baconian view are essential to the present conflict. First is the attitude that the essence of the scientific method involves only observation and classification of facts. For the careful Baconian observer , theories to explain the facts will emerge. This view of the scientific method ignores the role of hypothesis in guiding scientific discovery and restricts science to those processes that can actually be observed. The second aspect of the Baconian view of science is that it seeks to discover objective certainty about the universe. The Baconian scientist wishes to collect the factual description of the universe into a textbook. The creationist view of science grew out of the early development of biology in an intellectual environment dominated by Isaac Newton's mechanistic picture of the universe. The clock is an apt metaphor to describe a universe that operates according to Newtonian principles. From this perspective, the universe is a divine machine, operating according to rules laid down by God that describe the interaction of all of its parts. Newton's view of science is also relevant here, for, in many regards, it typifies the Baconian view of science. Newton considered himself foremost to be a theologian, and he believed that science and theology are inseparable. In his view, science could indeed seek and verify absolute answers to transcendent questions about the universe. The creation/ evolution controversy has grown in part from this attitude that science can verify...