The currency of science, its irreplaceable silver and gold.*

[bending_sickle]

Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth
Edward O Wilson (2006)

Part 5: Reaching Across

Science and religion are the two most powerful forces of society. Together they can save the Creation.


17. An Alliance for Life

“From that foundation I have focused on the interaction of three problems that affect everyone: the decline of the living environment, the inadequacy of scientific education, and the moral confusions caused by the exponential growth of biology. In order to solve these problems, I’ve argued, it will be necessary to find common ground on which the powerful forces of religion and science can be joined. The best place to start is the stewardship of life.”

“But no, I say, respectfully. Life was self-assembled by random mutation and natural selection of the codifying molecules. As radical as such an explanation may seem, it is supported by an overwhelming body of interlocking evidence. […] Would God have been so deceptive as to salt the earth with so much misleading evidence?

Much as I would like to think otherwise, I see no hope for compromise in the idea of Intelligent Design. Simply put, this proposal agrees that evolution occurs but argues that it is guided by a supernatural intelligence. The evidence for Intelligent Design, however, consists solely of a default argument. Its logic is simply this: biologists have not yet explained how complex systems […] could have evolved by themselves; therefore a higher intelligence must have guided the evolution. Unfortunately, no positive evidence exists for Intelligent Design. None has been proposed to test it. No theory has been suggested, or even imagined, to explain the transcription from supernatural force to organic reality. That is why statured scientists, those who have led in original research, unanimously agree that the theory of Intelligent Design does not qualify as science.

Some have suggested that scientists have formed a conspiracy to halt the search for Intelligent Design. There is no such conspiracy. There is only agreement that the hypothesis has none of the of the defining qualities of science. To think otherwise is to misunderstand the culture of science. Discoveries and the testing of discoveries are the currency of science, its irreplaceable silver and gold. Challenges to prevailing theory on the basis of new evidence is the hallmark of science. If positive and repeatable evidence were adduced for a supernatural intelligent force that created and guided the evolution of life, it would deservedly rank as the greatest scientific discovery of all time. It would transform philosophy and change the course of history. Scientists dream of making a discovery of this magnitude.

Without such an event, however, it is a dangerous step for theologians to summon the default argument of Intelligent Design as scientific support for religious belief.”

“In science, as in logic, a default argument can never replace positive evidence, but even a sliver of positive evidence can demolish a default argument.”

“But the difference between humanism based on religion and humanism based on science radiates through philosophy and the very meaning we assign ourselves as a species. They affect the way we separately authenticate our ethics, our patriotism, our social structure, our personal dignity.”

“When you think about it, our metaphysical differences have remarkably little effect on the conduct of our separate lives.”


About the Author

“…the Crafoord Prize, given by the Royal Swedish academy of Sciences for fields it does not cover by the Nobel Prize”


See also:

Orians, George H. & Judith H. Heerwagen. (1992) “Evolved responses to landscapes” in The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture. (J.H. Barkow, L. Comsmides, J. Tooby. Eds.)
Frumkin, H. (2001) “Beyond toxicity: human health and the natural environment” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 20: 234-240
Mittermeier, Russell A., et al. (2005) Hotspots revisited : Earth’s biologically richest and most endangered terrestrial ecosystems.
Louv, Richard. (2005) Last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder.


* ibid