Science isn't about knowing the mind of God

by David Grand
December 7, 2005

What with all of our pressing problems facing us here and abroad, it's amazing how easily the nation's attention has been diverted to the raging debate over whether the theory of creationism, a.k.a. intelligent design, should be placed alongside that of evolution in science classes.

The central idea of intelligence design, as I understand it, is that nature is the way it is because God wanted it to be that way; that gaps exist in Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory that can't be explained; and that the universe is so complex that some higher being must've designed every detail.

Pshaw! So says the scientific community, who postulate that science isn't about knowing the mind of God, but it's about understanding nature and the reasons for things; and that intelligent design, as exciting as it is in theology, brings nothing to science and should only be taught in theology classes.

And in voicing the Vatican's criticism of Christian fundamentalists, who see evolution and the Genesis account as mutually exclusive, and who interpret the biblical account of creation literally, Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said: "the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin's theory were perfectly compatible, if the Bible were read correctly;" and adding, that "while creationist campaigners in the US want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim, the real message in Genesis was that the universe didn't make itself and had a creator, and that the precise details of how creation and the development of the species came about belonged to a different realm--science."

Now, I've never felt degraded or humiliated in knowing that humans are primates who evolved from ape ancestors over a period of at least 6 million years; that empowering the evolutionary process on a day-to-day basis is what Darwin termed "the struggle for survival" (or "natural selection"); and that the evolutionary engine works, as someone said, its slow but unrelenting biological effects primarily through accidents, starvation and death.        As further confirmation of the ancestral tree from which I fell or somersaulted out of, chimpanzees shares 98 to 99 percent of human genes, and that their understanding of new sentences is equal to that of a two-and-one-half-year-old child, or some politicians I can think of.

But perhaps televangelist Pat Robertson himself represents the best argument against the intelligent design theory, what with his inane, doomsday warning to residents of Dover, Pa., that they could be visited anytime soon--by a flood, an earthquake, a hail of fire and brimstone-for "voting God out of their city," by ousting the current school board for supporting intelligent design being taught in biology classrooms. As a newly elected board members said, "Robertson is beyond the fringe."

No question about that. For he has a long record of similar apocalyptic warnings and provocative statements; e.g., calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and warning the city of Orlando, Florida that it risked hurricanes, earthquakes and terrorist bombs after allowing gay organizations to put up rainbow flags in support of sexual diversity. And who along with Jerry Falwell, blamed the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks on the nation's moral decay, and specifically on gays, feminists, abortionists, the ACLU and anti-Christian groups, for incurring God's wrath on the US.

A pox on both their houses, I say, for spreading their personal hatreds under the guise of claiming they're God's messengers. There must be a special place in hell for such false prophets, if it isn't already filled to overflowing.