Why Darwin Matters_ The Case Against Intelligent Design - Michael Shermer [60]
New knowledge has led to the recognition that the theory of evolution is more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory.4
Christians, Conservatives, and Evolution
Despite these examples, recent polling data show that we still have a way to go before the theory of evolution achieves total acceptance. 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 to 32 percent of Protestants and 31 percent of Catholics; politically, 60 percent of Republicans are creationists while only 11 percent accept evolution, compared to 29 percent of Democrats who are creationists and 44 percent who accept evolution. Similarly, 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; further, those with a college education, those between the ages of eighteen and fifty-four, and those from the Northeast and West are more likely to accept evolution, whereas those without a college degree, aged fifty-five and older, and from the South are more likely to believe in creationism.5
What these figures tell us is that the nonscientific, demographic reasons for rejecting evolution, most notably religion and politics, are very strong. Can a Christian be a Darwinian? Can a conservative accept evolution? Yes. Here is how and why.
Evolution Makes for Good Theology
As outlined in this book, the theory describing how evolution happened is one of the most well-founded in all of science. Christians and conservatives embrace the value of truth-seeking as much as non-Christians and liberals do, so evolution should be accepted by everyone because it is true. In this sense, evolution is no different from any other scientific theory already fully accepted by both Christians and conservatives, such as heliocentrism, gravity, continental drift and plate tectonics, the germ theory of disease, the genetic basis of heredity, and many others.
Christians believe in a God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and eternal. The glory of the creation commands reverence regardless of when creation took place. And compared to omniscience and omnipotence, what difference does it make how God created life—via spoken word or via natural forces? The grandeur of life’s complexity elicits awe regardless of what creative processes were employed. Christians should embrace modern science for what it has done to reveal the magnificence of the divinity in a depth and detail unmatched by ancient texts.
In contrast, Intelligent Design creationism reduces God to an artificer, a mere watchmaker piecing together life out of available parts in a cosmic warehouse. If God is a being in space and time, it means that He is restrained by the laws of nature and the contingencies of chance, just like all other beings of this world. An omniscient and omnipotent God must be above such constraints, not subject to nature and chance. God as creator of heaven and earth and all things visible and invisible would need necessarily to be outside such created objects. If He is not, then God is like us, only smarter and more powerful; but not omniscient and omnipotent. Calling God a watchmaker is delimiting.
But more important, evolution explains family values and social harmony. Humans and other social mammals, including and especially apes, monkeys, dolphins, and whales, share a host of characteristics: attachment and bonding, cooperation and mutual aid, sympathy and empathy, direct and indirect reciprocity, altruism and reciprocal altruism, conflict resolution and peace-making, community concern and reputation caring, and awareness of and response to the