In “What’s at stake in the evolution debate,”
Pepper Trail, Ph.D., tells us there “… is no debate in the
scientific world about the validity of evolution … (as an
explanation for) … the development and workings of life on
Earth” (HCN, 10/3/05: What’s at stake in the evolution debate).
Wow, at last! Science free of debate and consensus, the key to
universal wisdom!
Nor does Pepper display careful
reasoning by rejecting “intelligent design” as the reason why
existence is logically structured and thus amenable to scientific
methodology in the first place. It is through just such
intellectual carelessness that the scientific community itself
regularly impedes human progress.
No, I don’t
suggest anything supernatural, as opposed to evolution, is the
source of the cosmos, nor that we should join ranks with leaders
that evince themselves frauds. But some form of ultimate reality
(to which the word “God” is particularly suitable) is certainly
responsible for having in some fashion evolved into existence an
organism capable of progressively understanding and articulating
the universe of things. Unfortunately, neither religion nor science
has yet tested synthesis as a possible solution to their dilemma.
David Brich
Salem, Missouri
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Bad science and religion.
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