Darwin Day

Tomorrow is Charles Darwin's birthday.  My school celebrated "Darwin Day" on Wednesday with a seminar during the lunch hour and an evening event including a speaker, panel, and yes, even birthday cake.

Being the nerd that I am, I attended all of it and was probably one of very few students not required by a teacher to be there.  I overheard a lot of students complaining about having to go, and the fact that the place was packed proves that they were being coerced.  Otherwise those seminars are full of faculty and staff, but pretty devoid of students - except yours truly.

Earlier this week, I was discussing evolution with a couple other Biology Ed majors.  The big thing that stuck out to me in our discussion was that people think they have to choose between evolution and religion.  One of my classmates told about a girl that was completely turned off to science altogether because of evolution.  I think that is probably quite common.  And it's sad.  I don't believe that science and religion or a faith in a Supreme Being should be mutually exclusive or that in order to be a good scientist, you need to be atheist.
But that is exactly the question I posed to the panel - are they mutually exclusive and do you need to be atheist?  The panel had 2 BYU professors on it who responded and then an atheist philosopher who argued every point the others made, and in fact, they went off on a tangent about the Book of Mormon and lack of DNA evidence tying the Native Americans to the middle east and it started an argument.  It wasn't my fault, I swear.  So obviously the BYU people think it's fine to have both science and religion, and the atheist said bluntly that it definitely makes it easier to be atheist and believe evolution is how the natural world works.

Dr. Heath Ogden was the one who gave the speech prior to the panel and he pointed out that only 40% of Americans accept evolution, but that a bunch of religions (including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I belong to) have stated that they have no problem with science.  I mentioned in my question that I don't get the vibe that this kind of open-mindedness is returned by the scientific community.  I feel like the people on the panel were the exceptions to the rule, and that many scientists are more like the philosopher was.  (This goes back to my post on Darwin as Dogma.)

One of them did point out, however, a few good examples.  Many contributers to evolutionary science are religious.  Then there is the poignant exaple of Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins.  Dawkins is an atheist who said "you can't be a good scientist and religious."  I remember seeing this quote when I was searching for general science quotes last year and that really got me thinking about how scientists see religious people.  The panelist said that in response to this, Francis Collins challenged Dawkins "show me how you've been a better scientist than I have," to which Dawkins had no response.

The philosopher on the panel said that it's definitely easier to be an atheist because of Darwin.  Before then it was pretty impossible.  As it turns out, this man was regurgitating a quote by Dawkins:
"I could not imagine being an atheist at any time before 1859, when Darwin's Origin of Species was published"  "...although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist".
-- R. Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, W.W. Norton, London, pp. 5,6  (http://community.beliefnet.com/go/thread/view/43991/22490045/Einstein,_Hawking,_and_the_Mind_of_God?pg=11)


The day after all this, I went to a meeting put on by the Wildlife and Botany Clubs about research and internships, and Dr. Ogden wants to do research on how to teach evolution to help people accept it.  I went and met with him Friday because I want to help with this.  Turns out he's LDS too and so we might take the angle of finding out how LDS people view evolution, what teaching methods would be effective in increasing acceptance of evolution, etc.  I'm really excited to get to help with this research.  I hope to prevent having my own students decide to hate science because it tries to rob them of their faith.

I love how this Coexist logo includes science with all the religions!

Darwin - Dogma?

Disclaimer: These are my thoughts and opinions with my current level of knowledge and understanding, which I'm the first to admit is not great.  I'm certain as I learn more I will weaken or strengthen, toss out, or completely change my views.  Please comment with your views, but please keep in mind my admitted ignorance and keep your words kind. :)

Is it just me, or do some evolutionists (and atheists, for that matter), seem to just be another group of religious fanatics trying to convert you to their beliefs?  It seems like anyone who dares question any of Darwin's theories as scientists currently understand them is ridiculed as a heretic.

In Physics last summer, my teacher introduced science as something where you do not accept ANYTHING based on someone's say so.  It all has to be evidence based from your own experience.  He also said that scientists are a funny bunch.  When a colleague creates something (a new theory), the acceptable way to respond is to attempt to destroy their creation.  If it withstands the skepticism and repeated testing and experimenting, then it is deemed of value.

I agree with this whole-heartedly.  I am very skeptical.  I want to learn everything for myself and figure things out until they click in my head and make sense to my being (aka spirit).
However, I feel like many scientists don't actually agree with this skepticism.  If anyone expresses skepticism about evolution in particular, they are not praised as a true scientist, but they seem to be ridiculed.  I read a quote from some guy a few months ago (forgive me, I only remember the jist of it), saying that science cannot exist with God.  He had some pretty strong words about the fools who believe in God and said that science very effectively disproves the existence of such a being.  I found myself wondering if this is the common view of the entire scientific community or if this guy was just a bit over-the-top.

I myself believe in Natural Selection, it's pretty dang obvious. But I don't necessarily believe it was the sole mechanism for creating the current diversity of life we enjoy on the earth.  So far I don't know enough, but I suspect that evolution CAN happen in individuals, not just populations, and be passed on to their posterity.  That may sound preposterous to most people, and maybe after further study I'll find that it is.  But isn't that what science is about?  Inferring truth and meaning based on what you currently know.

Geology is based heavily on uniformitarianism (spell checker doesn't like that word, but I think I spelled it correctly haha).  I think that Geologists are incredible scientists who are really rather like detectives.  It's super fun to try to figure out what happened to get a given land form to where it is today.  However I think that uniformitarianism is a bit too simple.  I think it could be foolish to take this tiny amount of data we have from recorded history, and apply it to billions of years.  The only constant is change.  I think Geology is great for figuring out how things happened but I don't necessarily believe that they took the amount of time they suppose.  I do think that geologic processes could have happened at different speeds during different times of earth history.  There are too many factors to assume things were always as they are now.

I think that Darwin effectively disproved the idea of the earth being only a few thousand years old.  But I think him jumping to the conclusion that this meant there was no God at all may have been a bit hasty.

My Microbiology teacher always called DNA the "Spirit molecule".  I could never tell if he was making fun of religious people or if he believes in something like that.  I think "spirit" is much smaller than DNA though.  Perhaps quantum physics is scratching the surface of something.  I think there are so many things at play on the sub-atomic level that we may never understand.  And call me crazy if you want, but I think spirit (and indeed, God) is in there- somewhere.

Thanks for reading.  Please comment. :)  And have a nice day.