The Evolution-Creation Struggle

Soon after putting this book on my reading list I attended a Michael Ruse lecture, with a different subtitle: The Evolution-Creation Struggle: an American story. Ironically, Ruse is a Brit whose main complaint is not that the struggle is an American storm in coffee cup -tea cups being out of favour- but rather that America's biggest failing is its tolerance of pitiful beer. Brit's will likely enjoy his breezy style and adroit turn of phrase. Struggle is a very informative survey of the roots of Evolution-Creation and Science-Religion debates and discontents on both sides of the Atlantic, thus dealing only with the recent history of western Christendom and its various ideologies. At the outset Ruse (a philosopher of biology) makes a distinction between Evolution (the 'fact' that organisms have developed through time), the "theory' of Evolution (Darwinism) and "Evolutionism" the metaphysical or ideological picture built on progressivist ideals. Religious studies debate often boils down to ideological struggles between polar opposite options like secular humanism on the one hand, and on the other beliefs in divine salvation, dispensationalism and the like John and Charles Wesley the "inadvertent founders of Methodism" brought such debates into a modern Anglo-American context during the so called 'Great Awakening' of the 1730s. They offered a Methodist 'human effort' alternative to fundamentalist/Calvinist doctrines of salvation by God's grace. Subsequent debate has revolved around this very issue: is human progress achieved though the free exercise of our "God-given" reason, to live, learn and grow spiritually? This progressive, post-millennial view allows improving our lot here on Earth with good works and social conscience. The alternate pre-millennial view binds us providentially to an authoritarian God and the need for salvation to avoid eternal damnation. In this view, progress is dangerous leading to instability and revolution, which in turn fosters conservative backlash. Thus, in the early 1800s a second "Great Awakening' revival followed the American and French Revolutions.

Social and industrial progress helped prime the pump of "progressive evolutionism" before it was popularised, in 1844, by Robert Chalmers Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, and in 1859 by The Origin of Species. Evolution became a "vehicle for pushing the doctrine of progressive development," as fundamental to biology as gravitation is to physics. Most geologist-paleontologists and biologists, as well as writers like Dickens, enjoyed much success with popular books, and were ardent progressionists. They saw the guiding hand in nature's order, which Darwin (and Wallace) regarded as a "designed law-" though Darwin had reservations about progressivist terms like 'higher' and 'lower' development. Unlike the more conservative Darwin, Wallace, the indefatigable and visionary iconoclast, predicted the rise of feminism as an integral facet of evolution.

When Thomas Henry Huxley, also known as 'Pope' Huxley and "Saint Paul," entered the picture to spread the Darwinian doctrine as 'professional science" his zeal was as much for social reform (progressive Social Darwinism) as for evolutionary theory. The argument was not about biological relationships. Huxley shrewdly promoted physiology and anatomy as practical new disciplines to advance education, especially in medical schools. However, being a metaphysical ideology, evolutionism was hard to sell as a useful applied science. But, evolution could address religious questions of origins, destiny and the moral development of humanity: it was what his own grandson, Julian, called a "religion without revelation." So, Huxley resorted to the subterfuge of pre-emptively declaring war on religion as the "irreconcilable" enemy of science. In highly evangelical language this famous 'agnostic' (he coined the term) announced that "we are on the eve of a new Reformation" soon to see "the God of Science" on the necks of her enemies. Huxley- the 'professional scientist' –had fired a resounding salvo.

Though Ruse and others may see today's Evolution-Creation Struggle as American, the origin of the debate can clearly be traced to Europe long before the 1859 Origin of Species. As early as 1700 modern science and changing social conditions were the parents of a 'crisis of faith' that spawned both siblings: evolutionism and creationism. Despite Huxley's subterfuge, many late 19th century Christians happily accepted evolution as progressive science, (see Network 89 review of McGrath on Dawkins' God), with many technological and financial benefits "Design by wholesale is grander than design by retail" said Henry Ward Beecher. Meanwhile, Huxley was the first convocation speaker at John's Hopkins University (built with progressivist railroad money). But the post civil war benefits were greater for the Yankee north than the vanquished deep south, which felt cheated and turned anti-progressivist, even identifying with the suffering of the exiled Israelites. The Fundamentalist backlash was a later, early 20th Century phenomenon emphasising purity, temperance and giving us vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists, peanut butter and Kelloggs cornflakes, not to mention the Scopes Monkey trial. The cycle reminds us of the four generation seculum of historians Straus and Howe, in their book The Fourth Turning.

Ruse devotes three scholarly chapters to 20th century population genetics (Neo-Darwinism), sociobiology, religion-friendly evolutionists like Julian Huxley, Teilhard de Chardin and Theodosius Dobzhansky, who promoted a progressivist metaphysic and, on the other hand, the fanatical, atheistic ranting of Richard Dawkins, which come across as evolutionary evangelism. In the closing chapters Ruse treats Intelligent Design advocates with surprising tolerance, validating their world view but not their scientific aspirations. Evolutionary theory does impinge on religious thinking, so anyone is free to seek a philosophy that makes sense of origins, destiny and the nature of reality. The mystery remains complex. Evolutionary 'science' may reveal new truth but there is no guarantee as to how much. The ebb and flow of socio-historic tides is a big factor in helping us understand context and allowing our feeble consciousness to grasp a deeper, more-integrated insight.