Evolution Sunday was created (so to speak) by Michael Zimmerman, currently the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University, where he's also a professor of biology. He founded the Clergy Letter Project, in which 10,500 Christian clergy have signed a letter saying the following:
We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. . . . We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris.
Zimmerman has recently described the Evolution Sunday project:
The event is designed to provide an opportunity for congregations around the world to discuss the compatibility of religion and science, to investigate why religion and modern science need not be at war with one another. The event is designed to demonstrate that those shrill fundamentalist voices that assert that people must choose between religion and science are simply incorrect, that they are presenting a false dichotomy, that no such choice needs to be made. Indeed, one of the purposes of Evolution Sunday is to help elevate the nature of the debate on this topic from those who simply shout, “Accept evolution and you’ll go to hell.” Finally, one of the purposes of Evolution Sunday is to bring attention to the Clergy Letter, a letter signed by more than 10,500 Christian clergy members. This letter makes it clear that thousands upon thousands of Christian clergy members have no problem embracing their faith as well as evolution.
The sad fact is that the creationism/evolution "debate" has been guided by the most strident voices on either side. There are scientists who proclaim that science has disproved the existence of God -- something science by its nature simply can't do. And there are evangelists who feed their flocks wildly distorted parodies of what evolution really is and what it means for humanity.
And then, of course, there's that dee-e-e-eep thinker Ann Coulter, who put her two neurons in in Godless, in which she argues that not only is evolution inherently atheistic, but that its atheism is the only reason godless liberal scientists haven't rejected it. Bless her little heart, if they ever find it.
And, would you believe it? Ann Coulter is wrong! Not just wrong, but stunningly, mind-curlingly, bug-eyed-ly, steaming-from-the-ears-ly wrong. Who would have thought that was possible?
Most people who reject evolution do so, not because they have actually studied the science, but because they have been told it's "anti-God." But many major churches -- including, you know, the big one at the Vatican -- have issued proclamations saying that evolution is not incompatible with Christianity. (I should mention that I'm Jewish, not a Christian, but Jewish theology doesn't have a problem with evolution either.) Evolution Sunday is an attempt to cut through the noise and the politics and bring a simple message: you don't have to choose between God and Darwin.
In Judge Jones' decision throwing Intelligent Design theory out of the Dover science classroom, he points out the basic flaw of the anti-evolution movement:
Both Defendants and many of the leading proponents of ID make a bedrock assumption which is utterly false. Their presupposition is that evolutionary theory is antithetical to a belief in the existence of a supreme being and to religion in general. Repeatedly in this trial, Plaintiffs’ scientific experts testified that the theory of evolution represents good science, is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, and that it in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator.
One of the best discussions on the theological side of evolution is a terrific book by Kenneth Miller called Finding Darwin's God. Miller is the co-author of the biology book that had the Cobb County "warning sticker" slapped on it; the same biology book was the one the dingbats of the Dover, Pennsylvania schoolboard wanted to supplement with the Intelligent Design "textbook," "Of Pandas and People," and his testimony was an important part of the Dover trial. But he's also given serious thought to the unnecessary civil war that has been fomented over the theological implications of evolution, and much of that thought is reflected in the book I've just mentioned.
Tomorrow is, incidentally, Charles Darwin's birthday. I'm going to be giving a Darwin Day talk later today, and at the end we're going to sing:
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
You look like a monkey
And your genome does too.
Followed by the New York Dolls' "Dance Like a Monkey".
Happy Darwin Day, folks.
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