November 1999 Evolution Still Under Fire By Rabbi Alvin Kass It's shocking and unbelievaly that politicians are still arguing over whether evolution should be taught in school. That such is the case, however, is evident from a recent decision of the Kansas Board of Education discouraging science teachers from teaching evolution and eliminating questions about the subject from student evaluation tests. The Board defended its move by contending that evolution is a controversial theory that only some biologists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things. Furthermore, said the Board, since no one was present when life first appeared on Earth, any statement about its origin has to be considered as theory rather than fact. In actuality, the overwhelming preponderance of biologists accept Darwin's theory of evolution. Whatever controversies exist, pertain only to the details. As far as evolution being a theory is concerned, that is its strength, not its weakness. All of science, including evolutionary theory, is based on malleable human knowledge. Precisely because theories are not set in stone, ideas can be nudged closer and closer toward describing reality as a consequence of our ever increasing knowledge. For something to be called a theory, it has to be falsifiable, capable of being overthrown by further investigation. Above all else, science is a method of interrogating reality. Scientists formulate hypotheses that seem to be true and then test them. They aim almost perversely to negate them, and elevate only the handful that survive to the status of a theory. Most of the opponents of evolution, however, advocate creationism, the name applied to the account of how things came to be that is contained in the first eleven chapters of the Bible. Creationism's fatal flaw is that it is not a scientific theory whose preponents gather data, weight the pros and cons, and thereafter reach their conclusions. Instead, they take the literal wording of the Book of Genesis and then attempt to find scientific support for it. Moreover, although the creationists claim to oppose only evolution, their attacks are really against all science. For if the creationists are right in declaring that the Earth is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old, then most of our physics would also fail with the invalidation of radioactive decay as a form of dating. Our astronomy would also go in rebutting the claim that light from distant galaxies takes millions of years to reach us. A mature view of the Bible ought to recognize that it cannot serve as a scientific account of the origin and nature of the physical world. A literalistic approach only concentrates our attention on the aspects of the narrative that reflect the limitations of the time and place of composition. Moreover, it obscures the elements that are timeless and enduring. Regardless of its scientific merit, the Bible propounds an eternally relevant message of faith: a belief in one God who is the Creator and Soverign of the world; a view of humans as God-like creatures, uniquely endowed with reason, freedom, and infinite worth, into whose hands God has entrusted mastery of His creation; and a concept of reality which proclaims the essential goodness of life and the existence of a universal moral order. Nothing in Darwin's theory of evolution challenges these principles. On the contrary, the evolutionary position that life did begin at a fixed point in the history of the Earth leads to the reasonable assumption that what has an origin must have an Originator. The chain of evolution, furthermore, beginning with a one-celled amoeba and culminating in the human species, also suggests a purposive intelligence which guides the destiny of the world. Indeed, the entire trend of scientific thought, which has disclosed not merely the discovery of diverse laws but one unifying process underlying all reality, reiterates the affirmation of Genesis that existence is dependent on one God. A vital religion cannot ignore science, just as science will have to turn to religion for faith and meaning. Properly understood, religion and science are not antagonists, but neither are they identical enterprises. Let science be taught in the school. Let religion be taught in the synagogue, the church, and the home. As complementary aspects of the human spirit, they can both help us to grasp the wholeness and goodness of life.