Op-Ed: Getting Over Evo-Phobia

By Clay Farris Naff

Nebraska takes pride in its world-class schools, and with good reason. Yet, when it comes to one of the most important theories in science, we flunk. A Pew Forum survey suggests that well over half of Nebraskans reject the idea that we share common ancestors with other forms of life.

Why? The answer is simple: old-time religion fears evolution.

In honor of this Saturday’s anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, 131 congregations across the nation will join in celebrating Evolution Weekend 2011. Only three from Nebraska are slated to participate, and all are in the Omaha area.

It’s high time we get over our evo-phobia. A new national study shows that less than a third of teachers follow the guidelines for teaching evolution. Some reject it outright, but another 60 percent soft-pedal the subject. Does this happen in Nebraska? Almost certainly.  

So far as I can ascertain, three main fears drive the rejection of evolution. First, there is the fear that it will discredit religion. Second, that it will prompt atheism. Third, that the first two will doom morality. All three are misplaced beliefs, as I will try to show in this column.

One thing is for sure: rejection is not about gaps or flaws in the theory. If there were ever legitimate doubts about the science of evolution, they have been erased by the last decade of research. We now know just how closely we are related to chimpanzees (98 percent of genes in common), what changes allowed us to become so special (we swapped powerful jaws and lengthy guts for more brain power), and how we are related to Neanderthals (they were a competing human species until about 30,000 years ago) .

Meantime, physical anthropology continues to make spectacular discoveries, filling in an already rich portrait of human ancestry. The recent discovery of Ardi, the fossil remains of a hominid who lived 4.4 million years ago, revealed an ancestor who both swung in trees and walked on the ground. Australopithecus sediba, discovered in South Africa, shows that by a little less than 2 million years ago, the transition to a ground-dwelling creature in the genus homo was complete. Meantime, the astonishing discovery of hobbit-like remains on the Indonesian island of Flores appears to show that yet another human species walked the Earth until as recently as 17,000 years ago.

Lab experiments and field observation have demolished the idea that there is some sort of barrier between species. Genes can be transferred from one species to another with ease, and species evolve and glide into another all the time. 

So much, in brief, for the science. What of the theological fears? 

First, it bears repeating that not all believers reject evolution. From the Pope to the most humble parishioner, there are plenty of people who find faith and science compatible. But zealous opponents of evolution wage endless war against it.

Answers in Genesis founder Ken Ham puts it this way: if the Bible is wrong about a single detail -- the age of the Earth, or the origin of humankind -- “the whole message of the Gospel falls apart.” This strikes me as frail faith indeed. 

In the early days of Christianity, few people thought holy writ was meant to be taken literally. That’s why Scriptures included multiple versions of the same event, starting with Genesis. In the early 5th century, St. Augustine warned against trying to pit interpretation of Scripture against science. Doing so, he cautioned, would only bring Scripture into ridicule.

How right he was. Which brings us to the second fear: prompting atheism. It’s true that disaffiliation from religion has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade. But I would argue that this the fault of religion itself. To insist on rigid theologies rooted in ancient myth and superstition is to drive away people who value truth over comfort.

Science does not own truth. It gives us testable models of reality that correspond to what is probably true. One thing science makes clear is that we are likely born with a moral sense. We don’t need ancient tablets (in whichever version) to be good. That’s not to say religion has nothing to contribute to moral development. It’s simply to reject the claim that it’s Scriptural commandments or chaos.

Science leaves plenty of room for faith. But faith, in turn, must be rooted in humility, lit by religious imagination, and leavened by compassion. Only then can it provide the bread of modern life.

Clay Farris Naff is cofounder of Nebraska Citizens for Science (nebscience.org). He blogs on science and religion for the Huffington Post. His weekly radio program "Science Odyssey" can be heard on KZUM 89.3 FM Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. Recordings of his radio program are regularly posted on Star City Blog.