Posted on 12/18/2004 5:56:30 PM PST by PatrickHenry
Professional danger comes in many flavors, and while Richard Colling doesn't jump into forest fires or test experimental jets for a living, he does do the academic's equivalent: He teaches biology and evolution at a fundamentalist Christian college.
At Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill., he says, "as soon as you mention evolution in anything louder than a whisper, you have people who aren't very happy." And within the larger conservative-Christian community, he adds, "I've been called some interesting names."
But those experiences haven't stopped Prof. Colling -- who received a Ph.D. in microbiology, chairs the biology department at Olivet Nazarene and is himself a devout conservative Christian -- from coming out swinging. In his new book, "Random Designer," he writes: "It pains me to suggest that my religious brothers are telling falsehoods" when they say evolutionary theory is "in crisis" and claim that there is widespread skepticism about it among scientists. "Such statements are blatantly untrue," he argues; "evolution has stood the test of time and considerable scrutiny."
His is hardly the standard scientific defense of Darwin, however. His central claim is that both the origin of life from a primordial goo of nonliving chemicals, and the evolution of species according to the processes of random mutation and natural selection, are "fully compatible with the available scientific evidence and also contemporary religious beliefs." In addition, as he bluntly told me, "denying science makes us [Conservative Christians] look stupid."
Prof. Colling is one of a small number of conservative Christian scholars who are trying to convince biblical literalists that Darwin's theory of evolution is no more the work of the devil than is Newton's theory of gravity. They haven't picked an easy time to enter the fray. Evolution is under assault from Georgia to Pennsylvania and from Kansas to Wisconsin, with schools ordering science teachers to raise questions about its validity and, in some cases, teach "intelligent design," which asserts that only a supernatural tinkerer could have produced such coups as the human eye. According to a Gallup poll released last month, only one-third of Americans regard Darwin's theory of evolution as well supported by empirical evidence; 45% believe God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago.
Usually, the defense of evolution comes from scientists and those trying to maintain the separation of church and state. But Prof. Colling has another motivation. "People should not feel they have to deny reality in order to experience their faith," he says. He therefore offers a rendering of evolution fully compatible with faith, including his own. The Church of the Nazarene, which runs his university, "believes in the biblical account of creation," explains its manual. "We oppose a godless interpretation of the evolutionary hypothesis."
It's a small opening, but Prof. Colling took it. He finds a place for God in evolution by positing a "random designer" who harnesses the laws of nature he created. "What the designer designed is the random-design process," or Darwinian evolution, Prof. Colling says. "God devised these natural laws, and uses evolution to accomplish his goals." God is not in there with a divine screwdriver and spare parts every time a new species or a wondrous biological structure appears.
Unlike those who see evolution as an assault on faith, Prof. Colling finds it strengthens his own. "A God who can harness the laws of randomness and chaos, and create beauty and wonder and all of these marvelous structures, is a lot more creative than fundamentalists give him credit for," he told me. Creating the laws of physics and chemistry that, over the eons, coaxed life from nonliving molecules is something he finds just as awe inspiring as the idea that God instantly and supernaturally created life from nonlife.
Prof. Colling reserves some of his sharpest barbs for intelligent design, the idea that the intricate structures and processes in the living world -- from exquisitely engineered flagella that propel bacteria to the marvels of the human immune system -- can't be the work of random chance and natural selection. Intelligent-design advocates look at these sophisticated components of living things, can't imagine how evolution could have produced them, and conclude that only God could have.
That makes Prof. Colling see red. "When Christians insert God into the gaps that science cannot explain -- in this case how wondrous structures and forms of life came to be -- they set themselves up for failure and even ridicule," he told me. "Soon -- and it's already happening with the flagellum -- science is going to come along and explain" how a seemingly miraculous bit of biological engineering in fact could have evolved by Darwinian mechanisms. And that will leave intelligent design backed into an ever-shrinking corner.
It won't be easy to persuade conservative Christians of this; at least half of them believe that the six-day creation story of Genesis is the literal truth. But Prof. Colling intends to try.
The advocate of such a position basically does not need the existence of God to explain the origins of the universe. If God exists, he would be an even more detached being than the "watchmaker" god of Deists like Thomas Paine or Thomas Jefferson. For someone who is an atheist, a skeptic, or a believer in a supernatural being who is less than omniscient or all powerful, the evolutionary process and an old earth and old universe are necessary elements for his cosmology.
OTOH, a theist, one who believes in an all-powerful and omniscient God, would believe that this being would not control the development of the universe through whatever mechanism he chooses: fiat creation, intelligent design, or guidance of the evolutionary process.
The position held by mainstream science, that of random, unguided evolution, reflects the philosophies of naturalism and materialism. Because of these presuppositions, the position does directly address the origins of life and the universe. It is also in conflict with any theistic system.
Not quite. This has all been addressed many times before. You keep using the expression "random, unguided evolution." Mutations only appear to be random, because we can't predict them (too many variables), but they are determined by the laws of physics and chemistry. Natural selection isn't random either. The survival and reproductive success of various individuals is likewise determined by their ability to deal with their environment. It seems random, but only because of all the factors involved. In principle it's predictable.
Science does not embrace the philosophy of "naturalism and materialism." But procedurally, science has no choice but to work with the materials at hand. If you can figure out a way to verifiably work with spiritual phenomena, science will explore your evidence.
We have been thru all this before:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1183712/posts?page=79#79
Capillary action.
If they are both religions, then I am waiting for a fundamentalist pastor to start presenting evolution from the pulpit on Sunday morning. When that happens, then I will be okay with creationism in a science class.
It doesn't matter if EVERY learned, credentialed scientist believes that God created the universe, the earth and all life on it. That idea is still not science. Please do not confuse the personal beliefs of scientists with the theories of science. Even if all scientists believed in creationism, the theory of evolution would still be the only scientific theory that explained the diversity of life (or there would be no scientific theory, as was the case pre-Darwin.)
Auburn = Alabama Usually Beats Us Red Necks.
If nature is proven to be a closed system, entirely supportable through observable scientific laws without the need for a "watchmaker", then any sort of theism, in the sense of an all powerful, omniscient God, is invalid. This view may not necessarily preclude the existence of supernatural phenomena. For example, the Soviets studied the existence of ESP and "auras" of human souls while being firmly materialist in ideology. However, this area would be essentially irrelevant, except as a curiosity. The only valid metaphysics would be that of materialism and naturalism. If that is the case, theism of any sort would be invalid. If the propositions of Scripture are false, Christians would then be, in the words of the apostle Paul, the greatest of fools.
LOL. I heard the religion moderators are scientologists, not to be confused with "christian" scientologists
“As with all scientific knowledge, a theory can be refined or even replaced by an alternative theory in light of new and compelling evidence. The geocentric theory that the sun revolves around the earth was replaced by the heliocentric theory of the earth's rotation on its axis and revolution around the sun. However, ideas are not referred to as "theories" in science unless they are supported by bodies of evidence that make their subsequent abandonment very unlikely. When a theory is supported by as much evidence as evolution, it is held with a very high degree of confidence.
In science, the word "hypothesis" conveys the tentativeness inherent in the common use of the word "theory.' A hypothesis is a testable statement about the natural world. Through experiment and observation, hypotheses can be supported or rejected. At the earliest level of understanding, hypotheses can be used to construct more complex inferences and explanations. Like "theory," the word "fact" has a different meaning in science than it does in common usage. A scientific fact is an observation that has been confirmed over and over. However, observations are gathered by our senses, which can never be trusted entirely. Observations also can change with better technologies or with better ways of looking at data. For example, it was held as a scientific fact for many years that human cells have 24 pairs of chromosomes, until improved techniques of microscopy revealed that they actually have 23. Ironically, facts in science often are more susceptible to change than theories, which is one reason why the word "fact" is not much used in science.
Finally, "laws" in science are typically descriptions of how the physical world behaves under certain circumstances. For example, the laws of motion describe how objects move when subjected to certain forces. These laws can be very useful in supporting hypotheses and theories, but like all elements of science they can be altered with new information and observations.
Those who oppose the teaching of evolution often say that evolution should be taught as a "theory, not as a fact." This statement confuses the common use of these words with the scientific use. In science, theories do not turn into facts through the accumulation of evidence. Rather, theories are the end points of science. They are understandings that develop from extensive observation, experimentation, and creative reflection. They incorporate a large body of scientific facts, laws, tested hypotheses, and logical inferences. In this sense, evolution is one of the strongest and most useful scientific theories we have."
If Morris and Hovind are in error, it would be in the lack of reasonability of their conclusions.
Life is chaotic, like a kid's room. It just carries on, there's no "evolution", if anything, it's de-evolution. (Note also, some of us went beyond the 5th grade and actually know where to place apostrophes)
The evolutionists don't like this too much
You still confuse methodological materialism with the philosophy of materialism. Science utilizes methodological materialism. This means that science must study the universe as if no supernatural phenomena exist. That is not equivalent to the statement that science must assume that no supernatural phenomena exist. It simply means that if there are supernatural phenomena then science has nothing to say about them. For example, evolution states that the vast diversity of life arose from the processes of genetic variation (through several mechanisms, including but not limited to mutations) and natural selection. It does not say that this process was or was not guided by God, since science simply cannot deal with the concept of God. In this respect, science IS compatible with theism. Scientists need not assume that God does not exist; the existence of God is an open question as far as science is concerned. Science, in fact, is most consistent with the doctrine of essential agnosticism. Unlike some agnostics, who believe that there is insufficient evidence to determine whether or not God exists, essential agnostics believe that it is impossible in principle to ever determine whether God exists. That is the view of science in general. Individual scientists are, of course, free to believe as they wish.
Pardon? Please clarify this statement.
I figured it's pretty basic, but I just bought it.
I'm so far behind you guys...where it's safe. 8~)
We Creationists have been referred to repeatedly as uneducated and stupid and sly references made to our inadvertant typos
We must not be understanding each others points. The idea that God created the universe is not supposed to be science. It is the study of science that causes people to believe that there is a God. Do you understand this point?
What typo are you referring to?
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