History of the creation-evolution controversy

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The creation-evolution controversy has a long history, beginning with challenges made by various naturalists to biblical accounts of creation. In response to theories developed by scientists, some religious persons and organizations, questioned the legitimacy of scientific ideas that call into question the creation account in Genesis.

Interpretation of the Judeo-Christian Bible had long been the prerogative of a priesthood able to understand Latin, but with the advent of the printing press, the translation of the Bible into other languages, and wider literacy, sundry and more literal understandings of scripture flourished.[1] This allowed some religious persons and groups to challenge supporters of evolution, such as Thomas Henry Huxley and Ernst Haeckel.[2]

Contents

[edit] Creation/evolution controversy in the age of Darwin

The Creation-Evolution controversy originated in Europe and North America in the late eighteenth century, when discoveries in geology led to various theories of an ancient earth, and fossils showing past extinctions prompted early ideas of evolution. Such ideas were particularly controversial in England where both the natural world and the hierarchical social order were thought to be fixed by God's will. As the terrors of the French Revolution developed into the Napoleonic Wars, followed by economic depression threatening revolution in Britain itself, such subversive ideas were rejected, associated only with radical agitators.[3]

Conditions eased with economic recovery, and when Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation was anonymously published in 1844 its ideas of transmutation of species attracted wide public interest despite being attacked by the scientific establishment and many theologians who believed it to be in conflict with their interpretations of the biblical account of life's, especially humanity's, origin and development.[4] However radical Quakers, Unitarians and Baptists welcomed the book's ideas of "natural law" as supporting their struggle to overthrow the privileges of the Church of England.[5]

Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation remained a best-seller, and paved the way for widespread interest in the theory of natural selection as introduced and published by English naturalist Charles Darwin in his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Darwin's book was praised by Unitarians as well as by liberal Anglican theologians whose Essays and Reviews sparked considerably more religious controversy in Britain than Darwin's publication, as its support of higher criticism questioned the historical accuracy of literal interpretations of the Bible and added declarations that miracles were irrational.[6]

Theologian Charles Hodge, a critic of Darwin's theories, also praised Darwin for his intellectual honesty.
Theologian Charles Hodge, a critic of Darwin's theories, also praised Darwin for his intellectual honesty.

Darwin's book revolutionized the way naturalists viewed the world. The book and its promotion attracted attention and controversy, and many theologians reacted to Darwin's theories. For example, in his 1874 work What is Darwinism? the theologian Charles Hodge argued that Darwin's theories were tantamount to atheism.[7] The controversy was fueled in part by one of Darwin's most vigorous promoters, Thomas Henry Huxley, who opined that Christianity is "a compound of some of the best and some of the worst elements of Paganism and Judaism, moulded in practice by the innate character of certain people of the Western World."[8] Perhaps the most uncompromising of the evolutionary philosophers was the German, Ernst Heinrick Haeckel, a professor of biology, who dogmatically affirmed that nothing spiritual exists.[9]

A watershed in the Protestant objections to evolution occurred after about 1875.[10] Previously, citing Louis Agassiz and other scientific luminaries, Protestant contributors to religious quarterlies dismissed Darwin's theories as unscientific.[10] After 1875, it became clear that the majority of naturalists embraced evolution, and a sizable minority of these Protestant contributors rejected Darwin's theory because it called into question the veracity of Scriptures.[10]

The greatest concern for creationists at the turn of the twentieth century was the issue of human ancestry.[11]

A satirical image of Charles Darwin as an ape from 1871 reflects part of the social controversy over whether humans and apes share a common lineage.
A satirical image of Charles Darwin as an ape from 1871 reflects part of the social controversy over whether humans and apes share a common lineage.
“ I do not wish to meddle with any man's family matters, or quarrel with any one about his relatives. If a man prefers to look for his kindred in the zoological gardens, it is no concern of mine; if he wants to believe that the founder of his family was an ape, a gorilla, a mud-turtle, or a moner, he may do so; but when he insists that I shall trace my lineage in that direction, I say No Sir!...I prefer that my genealogical table shall end as it now does, with "Cainan, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God."[12] ”

Creationists during this period were largely premillennialists, whose belief in Christ's return depended on a quasi-literal reading of the Bible.[13] However, they were not as concerned about geology, freely granting scientists any time they needed before the Edenic creation to account for scientific observations, such as fossils and geological findings.[14] In the immediate post-Darwinian era, few scientists or clerics rejected the antiquity of the earth, the progressive nature of the fossil record.[15] Likewise, few attached geological significance to the Bibilical flood, unlike subsequent creationists.[15] Evolutionary skeptics, creationist leaders and skeptical scientists were usually either willing to adopt a figurative reading of the first chapter of Genesis, or allowed that the six days of creation were not necessarily 24-hour days.[16]

[edit] Scopes Trial

Main article: Scopes Trial

Initial reactions in the United States matched the developments in Britain, and when Wallace went there for a lecture tour in 1886–1887 his explanations of "Darwinism" were welcomed without any problems, but attitudes changed after the First World War.[1] The controversy became political when public schools began teaching that man evolved from earlier forms of life per Darwin's theory of Natural Selection. In response, the State of Tennessee passed a law (the Butler Act of 1925) prohibiting the teaching of any theory of the origins of humans that contradicted the teachings of the Bible. This law was tested in the highly publicized Scopes Trial of 1925. The law was upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court, and remained on the books until 1967 when it was repealed. However, the next year, 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968), that such bans contravened the Establishment Clause because their primary purpose was religious.

Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan chat in court during the Scopes trial.
Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan chat in court during the Scopes trial.

[edit] Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) textbooks

In 1937, Theodosius Dobzhansky published Genetics and the Origin of Species, combining Mendelian genetics with Darwinian natural selection, and explaining, through neutral mutations, the source of the variation upon which evolution acted, leading to a synthesis that brought together disparate fields of biology and other sciences into a strong, coherent explanation of evolution.[17] A campaign ensued, urging schools to teach the "fact" of evolution,[18] and in the 1960s, the federally supported Biological Sciences Curriculum Study[19] biology text books were introduced, promoting evolution as the organizing principle of biology.[20] The belief in the power of science amongst biologist was running especially high: One of the prominent creators of the modern synthesis, Julian Huxley, made a religion of humanism, saying that a "drastic reorganization of our pattern of religious thought is now becoming necessary, from a god-centered to an evolutionary-centered pattern",[21] and advocating the use of science to further expand human capacities.[22] Meanwhile, public opinion polls suggested that most Americans either believed that God specially created human beings or guided evolution.[23] Membership in churches favoring increasingly literal interpretations of Scripture continued to rise, with the Southern Baptist Convention and Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod outpacing all other denominations.[23] With growth, these churches became better equipped to promulgate a creationist message, with their own colleges, schools, publishing houses, and broadcast media.[20]

With decreasing church membership among evolutionary scientists, the role of opposing the anti-BSCS textbook movement passed from prominent scientists in liberal churches to secular scientists less equipped to reach Christian audiences.[20] Anti-evolutionary forces were able to reduce the number of school districts utilizing BSCS biology text books, but courts continued to prevent religious instruction in public schools.[24]

[edit] ICR and the co-opting of the creationist label

Main article: Institute for Creation Research

Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb Jr.'s influential The Genesis Flood argued that creation was literally 6 days long, humans lived concurrently with dinosaurs, and that God created each kind of life, was published in 1961.[25] With publication, Morris became a popular speaker, spreading anti-evolutionary ideas at fundamentalist churches, colleges, and conferences.[26] Morris setup up the Creation Science Research Center (CSRC), an organization dominated by Baptists, as an adjuct to the Christian Heritage College.[27] The CSRC rushed publication of biology text books that promoted creationism, and also published other books such as Kelly Segrave's sensational Sons of God Return that dealt with UFOlogy, flood geology, and demonology.[28] These efforts were against the recommendations of Morris, who urged a more cautious and scientific approach.[29] Ultimately, the CSRC broke up, and Morris founded the Institute for Creation Research. Morris promised that the ICR, unlike the CSRC, would be controlled and operated by scientists.[30]. During this time, Morris and others who supported flood geology adopted the scientific sounding terms scientific creationism and creation science.[31] The flood geologists effectively co-opted "the generic creationist label for their hyperliteralist views".[32] Previously, creationism was a generic term describing a philosophical perspective that presupposes the existence of a supernatural creator.[33].

[edit] The current controversy

Main article: Creation-evolution controversy

The controversy continues to this day, with the scientific consensus on the origins and evolution of life actively attacked by creationist organizations and religious groups who desire to uphold some form of creationism (usually young earth creationism, creation science, old earth creationism or intelligent design) as an alternative. Most of these groups are explicitly Christian, and more than one sees the debate as part of the Christian mandate to evangelize.[34] Some see science and religion as being diametrically opposed views which cannot be reconciled (see section on the false dichotomy). More accommodating viewpoints, held by mainstream churches and many scientists, consider science and religion to be separate categories of thought, which ask fundamentally different questions about reality and posit different avenues for investigating it.[35]

More recently, the Intelligent Design movement has taken an anti-evolution position which avoids any direct appeal to religion. However, Leonard Krishtalka, a paleontologist and an opponent of the movement, has called intelligent design "nothing more than creationism in a cheap tuxedo",[36] and, in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005) United States District Judge John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design is not science, but is grounded in theology and cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.[37] Before the trial began, President Bush commented endorsing the teaching of Intelligent design alongside evolution "I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught ... so people can understand what the debate is about."[38] Scientists argue that Intelligent design does not represent any research program within the scientific community, and is opposed by most of the same groups who oppose creationism.[39]

[edit] Timeline of the controversy

  • 1650 - Anglican Archbishop James Usher of Ireland states that the universe was created in 4004 BCE, in direct conflict with the former prevailing Aristotlian view of a cyclical and eternal earth.
  • 1785 - James Hutton presented his theory of uniformitarianism, explaining that the Earth must be much older than previously supposed to allow time for mountains to be eroded and for sediment to form new rocks at the bottom of the sea, which in turn were raised up to become dry land.
  • 1794 to 1796 - Erasmus Darwin published Zoönomia with ideas on evolution and all warm-blooded animals arising from one living filament.
  • 1802 - William Paley publishes Natural Theology which uses the watchmaker analogy to argue for the existence of God from signs of intelligent design in the living world.
  • 1809 - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed a theory of evolution by acquired characteristics, later known as Lamarckism.
  • 1844 - Robert Chambers anonymously published the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.
  • 1857 - Philip Henry Gosse published Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot. Omphalos is Greek for "navel". Gosse was a brilliant naturalist who invented the first stable seawater aquarium. Gosse's book was an attempt to reconcile biblical literalism with geological uniformitarianism by adopting a Surrealist or Surrogate Realist (an anti commonsense realist) view of uniformitarianism and science generally. The book's Surrealist interpretation of science can be summed up God created the world AS IF the teachings of geology & science are true. Gosse's position is sometimes referred to as "Theological Surrealism" (see Jarrett Lepin for less trivial examples of Surrealism). Gosse's theme within the book was whether Adam and Eve had belly buttons (remnants of a link between the placenta and the baby). Since Adam and Eve did not have human parents they should not have belly buttons. This theme underlies the tension between geological records and biblical fundamentalism. His book was rejected by both sides of the debate because it "cuts no ice". Much of 21st century Creationist, Intelligent Design Theories flirt with Gosse's surrealist tenets to create an alternative and competing science.[citation needed]
  • 1859 - Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species regarding the theory of evolution, after over 20 years of research and discovery. Darwin was prompted to publish by the publication of an essay by Alfred Russel Wallace, which independently summarized the theory. The theory's most profound element, "natural selection," challenged the generally accepted idea of divine intervention in species formation, leading to strong reaction to Darwin's theory.
  • 1860 - Liberal theologians published Essays and Reviews supporting Darwin. A debate of Darwin's theory was arranged at the Oxford Museum, with Thomas Huxley among its defenders and Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford leading its critics. Later accounts indicate Sir Joseph Hooker was most vocal in defending Darwinism.
  • 1925 - The Scopes Trial (Dayton, TN U.S.A.) tested the new Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach that man descended from animals in public schools. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100; prosecution lawyer William Jennings Bryan offered to pay it, but it was later set aside on a technicality after appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
  • 1950 - Pope Pius XII issued the papal encyclical Humani Generis, which states that evolution is compatible with Christianity insofar as to discover "the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter," but that to apply evolution to matters of spirituality is inappropriate. The Roman Catholic Church has since refined its interpretations of Genesis as symbolic of spirituality.
  • 1958 - The National Science Foundation started the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, which emphasizes evolution in high school biology textbooks. This was part of a broad-based improvement of education in the United States in response to the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite. (See Sputnik crisis, "New Math")
  • 1960 - The Genesis Flood by Henry Morris and John C. Whitcomb, Jr. reinvigorated the creationist movement.
  • 1968 - A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Epperson v. Arkansas case repealed all remaining creationist laws. The Court supported a District Court ruling that the "Creationism Act" violated the Establishment Clause because it prohibited the teaching of evolution and it required the teaching of a particular religious doctrine.
  • 1973 - Tennessee passed a law requiring textbooks with a theory of origin to give equal emphasis to the Genesis account of Creation. In 1975 it was ruled unconstitutional because it violated the principle of separation of church and state.
  • 1991 - Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson popularized the intelligent design movement.
  • 1996 - Michael J. Behe wrote Darwin's Black Box, which proposed that some biological systems are irreducibly complex.
  • 1996 - On October 22, Pope John Paul II sent the message On Evolution to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, stating that "fresh knowledge" requires one to realize that evolution is "more than a hypothesis."
  • 1999 - On August 11, the Kansas State Board of Education deleted discussion of evolution and the Big Bang from standards relating to state assessments.
  • 2001 - The Kansas State Board of Education reinstated the discussion of evolution and the Big Bang after the removal of three board members.
  • 2002 - After much debate, the Ohio State Board of Education partially adopted the new "Teach the Controversy" initiative of intelligent design activists. In 2004 the board created a "Critical Analysis of Evolution" lesson plan for teachers.
  • 2004 - On January 30, Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter released a statement condemning the suggestion that the word "evolution" be banned from textbooks used in schools in the state of Georgia. [2]
  • 2004 - On February 19, Italian Education Minister Letizia Moratti issued a legislative decree that Italian children will learn about creationism. On April 23, top Italian scientists responded with an open letter and a petition, signed by more than 50,000 citizens, claiming that her proposal would sacrifice the "scientific curiosity of youth." [3] Moratti clarified that her proposal did not ban the teaching of evolution, but rescinded the decree nonetheless and even acted to bolster the presence of evolution in Italian academic curricula. [4]
  • 2004 - On July 23, the International Theological Commission issued the document Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God.
  • 2005 - Evolution went on trial once again in the Kansas State Board of Education. Advertisements pushing intelligent design started to appear in European cities like Budapest that had been untouched by creationism up to this point. [5]
  • 2005 - In September, parents in the Dover Area School District legally challenged intelligent design after a statement read to students claimed that there are "gaps" in evolution and that intelligent design is an alternative about which they can learn from Of Pandas and People. In December, the federal court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania issued a sweeping decision asserting that intelligent design is just another name for creationism, that it is not science, and that it cannot be taught as science in public schools. [6]
  • 2005 - In November, eight of the nine-member Dover, Pennsylvania school board were voted out and replaced with a coalition of Democratic and Republican candidates who oppose the previous board's decision to introduce intelligent design and lay doubts on evolution. The coalition ran on the Democratic ticket. The newly elected board members agreed to not appeal the court decision in Kitzmiller and have removed the intelligent design requirements from the school district's curriculum. (See Teaching Intelligent Design: Incumbent Dover PA school board fails reelection .)
  • 2005 - On December 20 the court in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the "Dover trial," issued its ruling that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and that the school board policy requiring the presentation of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution as an "explanation of the origin of life" thus violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In his ruling, the wrote that intelligent design is not science and is essentially religious in nature.[40]
  • 2007 - Pope Benedict XVI publishes Creation and Evolution, where he writes "[It] is also true that the theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory."[41]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Moore 2006
  2. ^ Larson 1997, p. 17
  3. ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, p. 34-35
  4. ^ van Wyhe 2006.
  5. ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, p. 321-322.
  6. ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, p. 500-501.
  7. ^ Hodge 1874, p. 177, Numbers 1992, p. 14
  8. ^ Burns, Ralph, Lerner, & Standish 1982, p. 965, Huxley 1902
  9. ^ Burns, Ralph, Lerner, & Standish 1982, p. 965
  10. ^ a b c Numbers 1992, p. 13
  11. ^ Numbers 1992, p. 15
  12. ^ Numbers 1992, p. 15, quoting H.L Hastings' tract in Was Moses Mistaken? or, Creation and Evolution (1896)
  13. ^ Numbers 1992, p. 14
  14. ^ Numbers 1992, p. 14-15
  15. ^ a b Numbers 1992, p. 17
  16. ^ Numbers 1992, p. 18, Noting that this applies to published or public skeptics. Many or most Christians may have held on to a literal six days of creation, but these views were rarely expressed in books and journals. Exceptions are also noted, such as literal interpretations published by Eleazar Lord (1788-1871) and David Nevins Lord (1792-1880). However, the observation that evolutionary critics had a relaxed interpretation of Genesis is supported by specifically enumerating: Louis Agassiz (1807-1873); Arnold Henry Guyot (1807-1884); John William Dawson (1820-1899); Enoch Fitch Burr (1818-1907); George D. Armstrong (1813-1899); Charles Hodge, theologian (1797-1878); James Dwight Dana (1813-1895); Edward Hitchcock, clergyman and respected Amherst College geologist, (1793-1864); Reverend Herbert W. Morris (1818-1897); H. L. Hastings (1833?-1899); Luther T. Townsend (1838-1922); Alexander Patterson, Presbyterian evangelist who published The Other Side of Evolution Its Effects and Fallacy
  17. ^ Starting “The Modern Synthesis”: Theodosius Dobzhansky
  18. ^ Larson 2004, p. 248,250
  19. ^ BSCS official website
  20. ^ a b c Larson 2004, p. 246,252
  21. ^ The New Divinity, Julian Huxley
  22. ^ Transhumanism, Julian Huxley, 1957.
  23. ^ a b Larson 2004, p. 251
  24. ^ Larson 2004, p. 253
  25. ^ Larson 2004, p. 255,Numbers 1992, p. xi,200-208
  26. ^ Larson 2004, p. 255
  27. ^ Numbers 1992, p. 284
  28. ^ Numbers 1992, p. 284-285
  29. ^ Numbers 1992, p. 284
  30. ^ Numbers 1992, p. 286
  31. ^ Quoting Larson 2004, p. 255-256: "Fundamentalists no longer merely denounced Darwinism as false; they offered a scientific-sounding alternative of their own, which they called either 'scientific creationism (as distinct from religious creationism) or 'creation science' (as opposed to evolution science."
  32. ^ Larson 2004, p. 254-255, Numbers 1998, p. 5-6
  33. ^ Hayward 1998, p. 11
  34. ^ Verderame 2007,Simon 2006
  35. ^ Dewey 1994, p. 31, and Wiker 2003, summarizing Gould.
  36. ^ As reported in the 4 May 2005 edition of the Washington Post
  37. ^ Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Case No. 04cv2688. December 20, 2005, Ruling Whether ID Is Science: Page 89, and Conclusion.
  38. ^ Bumiller 2005, Peters & Hewlett 2005, p. 3
  39. ^ Larson 2004, p. 258 "Virtually no secular scientists accepted the doctrines of creation science; but that did not deter creation scientists from advancing scientific arguments for their position." See also Martz & McDaniel 1987, p. 23, a Newsweek article which states "By one count there are some 700 scientists (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) who give credence to creation-science, the general theory that complex life forms did not evolve but appeared 'abruptly'."
  40. ^ Ruling, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Case No. 04cv2688. December 20, 2005
  41. ^ Creation and Evolution, Pope Benedict XVI, 2007, Sankt Ulrich Publishing. See also [1]

[edit] Citations