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Darwin on the Right: Why Christians and conservatives should accept evolution
Scientific American ^ | October 2006 issue | Michael Shermer

Posted on 09/18/2006 1:51:27 PM PDT by PatrickHenry

According to a 2005 Pew Research Center poll, 70 percent of evangelical Christians believe that living beings have always existed in their present form, compared with 32 percent of Protestants and 31 percent of Catholics. Politically, 60 percent of Republicans are creationists, whereas only 11 percent accept evolution, compared with 29 percent of Democrats who are creationists and 44 percent who accept evolution. A 2005 Harris Poll found that 63 percent of liberals but only 37 percent of conservatives believe that humans and apes have a common ancestry. What these figures confirm for us is that there are religious and political reasons for rejecting evolution. Can one be a conservative Christian and a Darwinian? Yes. Here's how.

1. Evolution fits well with good theology. Christians believe in an omniscient and omnipotent God. What difference does it make when God created the universe--10,000 years ago or 10,000,000,000 years ago? The glory of the creation commands reverence regardless of how many zeroes in the date. And what difference does it make how God created life--spoken word or natural forces? The grandeur of life's complexity elicits awe regardless of what creative processes were employed. Christians (indeed, all faiths) should embrace modern science for what it has done to reveal the magnificence of the divine in a depth and detail unmatched by ancient texts.

2. Creationism is bad theology. The watchmaker God of intelligent-design creationism is delimited to being a garage tinkerer piecing together life out of available parts. This God is just a genetic engineer slightly more advanced than we are. An omniscient and omnipotent God must be above such humanlike constraints. As Protestant theologian Langdon Gilkey wrote, "The Christian idea, far from merely representing a primitive anthropomorphic projection of human art upon the cosmos, systematically repudiates all direct analogy from human art." Calling God a watchmaker is belittling.

3. Evolution explains original sin and the Christian model of human nature. As a social primate, we evolved within-group amity and between-group enmity. By nature, then, we are cooperative and competitive, altruistic and selfish, greedy and generous, peaceful and bellicose; in short, good and evil. Moral codes and a society based on the rule of law are necessary to accentuate the positive and attenuate the negative sides of our evolved nature.

4. Evolution explains family values. The following characteristics are the foundation of families and societies and are shared by humans and other social mammals: attachment and bonding, cooperation and reciprocity, sympathy and empathy, conflict resolution, community concern and reputation anxiety, and response to group social norms. As a social primate species, we evolved morality to enhance the survival of both family and community. Subsequently, religions designed moral codes based on our evolved moral natures.

5. Evolution accounts for specific Christian moral precepts. Much of Christian morality has to do with human relationships, most notably truth telling and marital fidelity, because the violation of these principles causes a severe breakdown in trust, which is the foundation of family and community. Evolution describes how we developed into pair-bonded primates and how adultery violates trust. Likewise, truth telling is vital for trust in our society, so lying is a sin.

6. Evolution explains conservative free-market economics. Charles Darwin's "natural selection" is precisely parallel to Adam Smith's "invisible hand." Darwin showed how complex design and ecological balance were unintended consequences of competition among individual organisms. Smith showed how national wealth and social harmony were unintended consequences of competition among individual people. Nature's economy mirrors society's economy. Both are designed from the bottom up, not the top down.

Because the theory of evolution provides a scientific foundation for the core values shared by most Christians and conservatives, it should be embraced. The senseless conflict between science and religion must end now, or else, as the Book of Proverbs (11:29) warned: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."


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KEYWORDS: crevolist; dontfeedthetrolls; housetrolls; jerklist; onetrickpony; religionisobsolete
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To: PatrickHenry; js1138
Recently there has been some progress in the determinacy/indeterminacy question re. Brownian motion.

There may be some overlap between the causative properties that form natural history and those that form human history.

The distinction between determinate and indeterminate events is no reason to hold that absence of knowledge about causative properties means that such properties are actually indeterminate. That is an epistemological mistake. Indeterminacy is either a postive or negative characteristic.

1,861 posted on 09/30/2006 12:26:32 PM PDT by cornelis (Fecisti nos ad te)
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To: cornelis
...but this is no reason to say that life originated independent of biological processes.

I think you need to give this part a bit more thought. Try reading some stuff by actual researchers so you will at least have some common ground for discussion.

1,862 posted on 09/30/2006 12:31:35 PM PDT by js1138 (The absolute seriousness of someone who is terminally deluded.)
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To: js1138
you need to give this part a bit more thought.

Not if it is unimportant.

1,863 posted on 09/30/2006 12:53:01 PM PDT by cornelis (Fecisti nos ad te)
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To: cornelis

It's only important if you plan to pontificate on it in public without looking silly.


1,864 posted on 09/30/2006 1:01:05 PM PDT by js1138 (The absolute seriousness of someone who is terminally deluded.)
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To: hosepipe
I didn't get the joke about soup Nazis - probably because I never watched Seinfeld. But lucklily I found it on Wikipedia.

It must have been a hilarious skit. And the metaphor is funny here too wrt a hard-nosed defense of abiogenesis' "warm little pond."

1,865 posted on 09/30/2006 9:49:27 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: Alamo-Girl
[ It must have been a hilarious skit. And the metaphor is funny here too wrt a hard-nosed defense of abiogenesis' "warm little pond." ]

Only watching this episode can capture the subtle and fine details of the metaphore and the characters involved.. Pity you missed it..

1,866 posted on 09/30/2006 10:23:55 PM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole.)
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To: cornelis; betty boop
Thank you so very much for your insights concerning the manner of investigation of the abiogenesis v biogenesis question!

It is important to keep looking even if it is logically unknowable - simply because so many people are curious about origins. Also, I believe it would be wrong to dismiss discovery out-of-hand, i.e. only look to laboratory experiments. Who knows what observation technology may arise in the years to come?

But I very strongly assert that abiogenesis investigations should not repeat the Urey/Miller omission, i.e. they were not aware of the information (successful communication) component of life and were only able to produce about a dozen amino acids. IOW, they looked for a physicochemical solution only. The Wimmer experiments on the other hand began with the DNA message and were successful in bootstrapping the polio virus.

The investigation into abiogenesis v biogenesis must be wide to include all the non-spatial, non-temporal or non-corporeal factors that can be considered (information, geometry, autonomy, symantics, semiosis, etc.)

1,867 posted on 09/30/2006 10:29:24 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: hosepipe
Indeed. My bad. I tired of the repetitive storylines of situation comedies and just haven't watched them for a very, very, very long time.
1,868 posted on 09/30/2006 10:30:57 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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placemarker


1,869 posted on 09/30/2006 11:57:25 PM PDT by js1138 (The absolute seriousness of someone who is terminally deluded.)
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To: hosepipe
LOL! Many thanks for the ping.

Darwin himself stated in Origin of the Species that if the fossil record did not prove the biological links asserted in his theory, the whole would not stand. After these many years and these millions of fossils found, labeled, recorded, and categorized, the links are not there. A Darwinist Believer may claim, "We are VERY CLOSE to finding them!" Close may be good enough for horseshoes, hand grenades, and government work, but that is not how Science operates...at least, it ought not operate that way.

1,870 posted on 10/01/2006 3:37:26 AM PDT by .30Carbine (Life Chain Today!)
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To: VadeRetro

You can be a psychic and still be an evolutionist, there's not inherent conflict.

Now go fleece those naive sheep!


1,871 posted on 10/01/2006 8:24:51 AM PDT by ahayes (My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)
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To: .30Carbine

Do you ever get tired of parroting the same things over and over again?

We've found plenty of links, I'm not really worried on that account.


1,872 posted on 10/01/2006 8:25:37 AM PDT by ahayes (My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)
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To: ahayes; .30Carbine; betty boop; Doctor Stochastic; King Prout; cornelis; marron; hosepipe; ...
Fascinating!

I just sent a regular email to my dear sister in Christ, betty boop – using that exact same term, ”parrot”, to characterize the decline in mentality world-wide – and keenly so among evolutionist web-combatants.

It is most evident around here in the responses she and I receive to things we did not say – almost as if, ”since you are not in our cabal, then your thinking is type X and therefore you mean A and so my response is B”.

For anyone who missed the irony: that is group-thinking accusing others of group-thinking. It is self-condemning (Romans 2:1).

On the world scene, I submit as examples the Islamic response to the remarks by Pope Benedict or the Danish cartoons. On the crevo threads here and across the web, the same phenomenon occurs in creationist reactions to evolutionist claims and vice versa, evolutionist reactions to creationist claims.

What ever happened to reason?

I went on to speculate in my email to betty boop that IMHO the likely cause for widespread parroting in the world is the education system. From kindergarten to post-grad, people are taught to parrot – much more so than to think on their own. Talk about "political correctness!"

Speaking of mindless knee-jerk group-parroting, just take a peek at this exchange on Darwin Central.

betty boop and I are called “Blavatsky twins … new age spiritualists who think they are Christian reincarnations of Plato.”

What ever happened to reason? Jeepers, for that matter, what ever happened to reading? Or better still, reading comprehension?

betty boop and I are clearly Christians, neither of us embrace theosophy. Moreover, if anyone would care to actually read what we write, both of us are interested in the great Greek philosophers precisely because of our Christianity not despite it.

Talk about “new age” – parroting is the means of the "in crowds" from Islamic fundamentalism to 911 conspiracy theorists to anti-war mobs to [pick a type] political correctness.

Plato and Aristotle were not only not parrots, they were the exact opposite of “parrots”.

Thank you, Jesus! Maranatha!

Or how about this one from the same link calling us ”lapdog and nameless … they are nearly indistinguishable, they are usually found side-by-side, and each is assuredly a boob.”

For anyone who missed the irony: the only mortals who can actually know what the other guy is thinking are the ones who share the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2). Of course, only Christians have this kind of knowledge. LOLOL!

If anyone would care to lay aside his talking points and pick up his thinking cap – then, bring it on – and we’ll let the readers judge for themselves if we are boobs (ignorant and foolish) --- who is reasoning and who is parroting --- and which is more valuable.

1,873 posted on 10/01/2006 9:54:26 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: ahayes
But, but ...

Mah powahs do not come frum jest mah-seyulf!! Thay're frum sumthin' graytuh withiyun! Ah feel sumthin' MOVIN' INSAHD ME EVUN NOW!

Oops! Gotta run.

1,874 posted on 10/01/2006 9:58:26 AM PDT by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: Alamo-Girl

So were you actually responding to my post in some fashion, or were you just doing a search for the first use of the word "parrot" to go off in some sort of diatribe?


1,875 posted on 10/01/2006 10:09:48 AM PDT by ahayes (My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)
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To: ahayes; betty boop
LOLOLOL!

Thank you for illustrating the point!

1,876 posted on 10/01/2006 10:14:26 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: VadeRetro
Chestburster?
1,877 posted on 10/01/2006 10:17:50 AM PDT by ahayes (My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)
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To: Alamo-Girl

Always happy to be of use, although I prefer it when I'm being of use for something that makes coherent sense. Alas!


1,878 posted on 10/01/2006 10:18:35 AM PDT by ahayes (My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.)
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To: Alamo-Girl; betty boop; .30Carbine; cornelis
[ Speaking of mindless knee-jerk group-parroting, just take a peek at this exchange on Darwin Central.(link given) ]

Logo.. LoL....
Darwin Central "the Conspiracy that Cares"....
NOW thats funny... The Chemical SoupNazis have their own website..

1,879 posted on 10/01/2006 10:22:25 AM PDT by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole.)
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To: ahayes
Burbled as it came, I'll say that much.
1,880 posted on 10/01/2006 10:23:54 AM PDT by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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