Sam Brownback: What I Think About Evolution

NY Times ^ | 5/31/07 | Senator Sam Brownback

[Mr. Brightside]

The heart of the issue is that we cannot drive a wedge between faith and reason.

The truths of science and faith are complementary: they deal with very different questions, but they do not contradict each other because the spiritual order and the material order were created by the same God.

People of faith should be rational, using the gift of reason that God has given us. At the same time, reason itself cannot answer every question. Faith seeks to purify reason so that we might be able to see more clearly, not less.

Faith supplements the scientific method by providing an understanding of values, meaning and purpose. More than that, faith — not science — can help us understand the breadth of human suffering or the depth of human love...

Ultimately, on the question of the origins of the universe, I'm happy to let the facts speak for themselves. There are aspects of evolutionary biology that reveal a great deal about the nature of the world, like the small changes that take place within a species.

Yet I believe, as do many biologists and people of faith, that the process of creation — and indeed life today — is sustained by the hand of God in a manner known fully only to him.

It does not strike me as anti-science or anti-reason to question the philosophical presuppositions behind theories offered by scientists who, in excluding the possibility of design or purpose, venture far beyond their realm of empirical science.

Biologists will have their debates about man’s origins, but people of faith can also bring a great deal to the table.

For this reason, I oppose the exclusion of either faith or reason from the discussion. An attempt by either to seek a monopoly on these questions would be wrong-headed.

[mtg]

Then He must have outsourced the development of the human knee, coccyx, jaw, the appendix, the retina, and quite a few other parts of the human body. Because they're hardly "wonderfully" made.

Apparently, evolution didn't do any better. Evolutionary processes should have corrected any abnormalities a long time ago. Evolution is supposed to destroy anything bad a preserve only that which is good.

[Air Force Brat]

If you honestly believe what you’ve written, you are a fool.

Study geology, my friend.

Study how fossils clearly, indisputably show us that life has become progressively more complex over time.

Study stratigraphy.

Study superposition and radioisotope dating.

There is a H-U-G-E amount of scientific evidence supporting evolution, both in the biological sciences as well as other sciences where findings are consistent with evolution even though investigators set out to study completely different questions.

That’s one of the marks of an effective and relevant scientific theory - when seemingly unrelated scientific endeavors all point to the same solution. Such is the evidence supporting evolution.

And please, stop with the claptrap about thermodynamics. This isn’t a closed system. It’s a system with immense energy inputs. I presume your education taught you about that, didn’t it?

What a joke.

[Westbrook]

> If you honestly believe what you’ve written, you are a
> fool.

I honestly believe what I have written. Namecalling is the hallmark of the Evolutionist bigot, so being called a fool does not surprise me.

I surmise it also does not bother me as much as it might bother you.

I was once an avid evolutionist, so it’s not as if I am uninformed or ignorant.

> And please, stop with the claptrap about thermodynamics.
> This isn’t a closed system. It’s a system with immense
> energy inputs. I presume your education taught you about
> that, didn’t it?

Perhaps if I just dump the lumber in the sun and leave it exposed to the “immense engergy inputs” there, it will assemble itself into that tractor shed I so badly need. And I’ll give the “immense energy inputs” a head start by cutting the trees into lumber, first.

Yes, as an engineer I understand a lot about closed and open systems. And the first-order problem with open systems is that there is no directed or controlled feedback.