WHERE DARWIN MEETS THE BIBLE WHERE DARWIN MEETS THE BIBLE CREATIONISTS AND EVOLUTIONISTS IN AMERICA Larry A. Witham 1 2002 3 Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Witham, Larry, 1952– Where Darwin meets the Bible : creationists and evolutionists in America / Larry A. Witham. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-515045-7 1. Evolution (Biology)—Religious aspects. 2. Religion and science—United States. 3. Creationism—United States. I. Title BL263 .W593 2002 231.7'652'0973—dc21 2002022028 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper PREFACE When I conducted my first interview for this book in 1995, I was thinking of a short journalistic project. The next five years flew by, of course. Fortunately, they were some of the most eventful and colorful in America’s great debate between evolutionists and creationists. A similar interest in science and religion seemed to crest as well. What results in these pages, I believe, is a story of people, places, events, and ideas that is both pro-science and pro-religion. But its predominant theme is how we, a religiously inclined society, try to understand nature, which is mostly the bailiwick of science. Science can be a hard topic. One may think of it as having three areas to be de- ciphered, beginning with a giant parts list of the universe (often in Latin). Next are the mathematical formulas that explain the substance of the parts and how they move, and then what scientists call the “metaphors”—tree of life, big bang, double helix, gravity, matter, chaos—by which our minds may grasp the sheer complexity. With simplicity and general readers in mind, I have avoided the mathematics and draw sparingly on the parts and the metaphors. This book talks mostly with scientists and science educators, and as to what science is as a whole, they will all have something to say. Theologians are in this conversation as well, but in fewer number. Though I have done graduate studies in theology, history of religion, and the Bible, I pre- sume no expertise in my simple treatment of such topics. Whatever craft I may bring to telling or explaining a story was learned in a Washington, D.C., news- room, where almost daily since 1982 I have covered American society and the cur- rent events of religion, and where my colleagues at the Washington Times have taught me much. “Journalists are only as good as their sources,” says the truism, and in this project I’ve probably met some of the best sources, in both knowledge and generosity. Appreciation is primarily due to the more than one hundred peo- ple who agreed to interviews. Many of them have checked for accuracy in how I used their statements. On occasion, I have had to insert myself into the narrative to give an interview a proper context, since the interviews were conducted over several years. Neither professionals in science nor those in religion have given journalists high marks for explaining their fields fairly or accurately. 1 During this project, an occasional concern was that a reporter’s approach, which sometimes quotes the person on the street alongside the Ph.D. in the academy, might wrongly appear to legitimize one view or another. Fortunately, the journalist’s task is not to quibble over “intellectual equals” in a social or academic debate but to give full compass to responsible voices. What is more, this book is a cultural history. Who can doubt that evolutionists and creationists, for example, are equal forces in Ameri- can culture? There are several scholars, like the proverbial “shoulders” on which neophytes stand, on whose classic works I have relied for my own initiation. Among them was the historian Edward J. Larson, whom I interviewed for a 1996 news story; we went on to conduct three opinion surveys of scientists and theologians. The find- ings were published in Nature, Scientific American, and Christian Century and are further elaborated upon in this book. Stephen J. Gould, one of the most promi- nent evolutionists of his generation, in 2002 lost his second bout with cancer, and I want to note his kindness in granting an interview for this project. Others to whom I am grateful for having shared original research, sent materials, or com- mented on chapters include Edward B. Davis, Cynthia McCune, Jonathan Wells, Mark Kalthoff, Roland Hirsch, Doug McNeil, Clyde Wilcox, John Green, and staff at the American Association of University Professors, the National Association of Biology Teachers, the National Center for Science Education, the Institute for Creation Research, and the Discovery Institute. My warmest thanks to Cynthia Read of Oxford University Press, who backed this manuscript as soon as it flew over the transom and offered sage editorial ad- vice. Thanks also to newsroom colleagues Mary Margaret Green, Stephen Goode, Stacey McCain, Jeremy Redmond, and Cheryl Wetzstein for editorial comments, and to Ken Hanner for supporting news coverage that added to this book. The Li- brary of Congress provided me with a space where, for six weeks, I could hoard books and write during the 1998 Christmas season, and similar thanks are due to staff at the University of Maryland libraries in College Park. During these book- writing years, my son became quite the science student himself. Both he and my wife had the patience of Job as my preoccupation consumed evenings, weekends, and days off. It was a testimony, of course, to their love and support. February 2002 L. A. W Burtonsville, Maryland vi Where Darwin Meets the Bible CONTENTS Introduction: Ways of Knowing, 3 11 Darwin's Legacy in America, 11 12 The Two Books, 25 13 Looking for Boundaries, 42 14 Hearts and Minds, 57 15 Nature Alone: Evolutionists, 74 16 God and Nature: Creationists, 103 17 Politics, 133 18 Schools and Textbooks, 147 19 Higher Education, 162 10 Museums and Sanctuaries, 179 11 What Natural Scientists Believe, 198 12 The Great Debate, 212 13 Media-Eye View, 227 14 The Good Society, 242 15 Search for the Underdog, 261 Appendix, 271 Notes, 279 Index, 319 WHERE DARWIN MEETS THE BIBLE [...]... places where Darwin meets the Bible in the open sunlight Though a contemporary story, it will frequently reach back to the past The last chapter will gaze speculatively into the future 10 Where Darwin Meets the Bible 1 DARWIN S LEGACY IN AMERICA The Appalachian Mountains run an arching course from Maine to Alabama like a parenthesis on the American East The second-tallest peak in that gigantic wrinkle... halfinch thick Big print!”42 The evolution-creation debate in the United States began with a book, On the Origin of Species To chart the relationship between the Darwinian legacy in biology and religious belief in twentieth-century America, two greater books of the Western mind take prominence: the book of Scripture and the book of nature 24 Where Darwin Meets the Bible 2 .THE TWO BOOKS The American Museum... Gilbert “They continually shift in meaning and in their relation to each other.”13 The forces for evolutionism and creationism in America have both emerged from the 1990s with powerful new tools and constituencies For evolution, institutional science has led the way with calls for a new “civic scientist” who can win 6 Where Darwin Meets the Bible public confidence For the first time since its founding in 1946,... religious world.” The students learn the 12 Where Darwin Meets the Bible family history—that the Darwin and Wedgwood families often intermarried, and that the men were freethinkers, but the women were pious “Another myth that students have is this idea of the scientist as isolated genius, working alone and coming up with world-changing ideas,” said Professor Graham The effort for Darwin was collaboration,... the first American center of Darwinian debate In the year of the Origin, Harvard regally opened the Museum of Comparative Zoology with a long procession from the museum to the church, with the governor at the front The museum was founded by the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz, the son of 16 Where Darwin Meets the Bible Calvinist clergy—though now a Unitarian and perhaps the biggest name in American natural... that’s why the vast majority of working evolutionists are in fact atheists,” he says, pacing a University of Tennessee stage.21 The bulwark of creationism, of course, is America s religiosity and belief in God Creationists have long resorted to saying “God did it” wherever science has 8 Where Darwin Meets the Bible no answer, and have routinely been criticized for bringing their “God of the gaps” into empirical... the opposition among the faculty I do think that all led to the reasons I left Vir20 Where Darwin Meets the Bible ginia Tech.” Morris departed in 1970 after thirteen years on the faculty to found his institute, a place where he could write and publish and train a hoped-for army of future flood geologists Traveling southwest from Virginia Tech, the rolling Interstate 81 crosses the Appalachians, intersecting... seen in nature Darwin was drawing as much on the economic treatise of Thomas Malthus The Malthusian viewpoint helped Darwin cast nature in terms of hungry, multiplying mouths amid limited food It was truly a “struggle for existence.” When Rogers met Darwin, however, all this was still in the Englishman’s head Describing the Birmingham meeting in a letter home, Darwin wrote of his boredom and “all the. .. returns Darwin meets the Bible just about everywhere in America, at the great intersections where creationism meets evolutionism and where science meets religion They are daunting crossroads, congested with technical science, sacred theologies, moral concerns, ideological agendas, and political hardball Most Americans, according to opinion polls, know little of what they might find there Generally, they have... instigated the honors course Darwin: Myths and Reality.” If the average American student is unfamiliar with Darwin and the Victorian age, said Professor Graham, they are not much better on literature, including the Bible Only a few of his students know the story of Job, the Old Testament treatise on suffering, natural evil, and justice in a God-made world; it is the very conundrum Darwinism answers by saying . WHERE DARWIN MEETS THE BIBLE WHERE DARWIN MEETS THE BIBLE CREATIONISTS AND EVOLUTIONISTS IN AMERICA Larry A. Witham 1 2002 3 Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires. into the future. 10 Where Darwin Meets the Bible 1. DARWIN S LEGACY IN AMERICA The Appalachian Mountains run an arching course from Maine to Alabama like a parenthesis on the American East. The. support. February 2002 L. A. W Burtonsville, Maryland vi Where Darwin Meets the Bible CONTENTS Introduction: Ways of Knowing, 3 11 Darwin& apos;s Legacy in America, 11 12 The Two Books, 25 13 Looking for