Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Brownback on Evolution:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_05_27-2007_06_02.shtml#1180623275
At the first Republican Presidential debate, Senator Sam Brownback was
among those who raised his hand when asked if any of the candidates
did not believe in evolution. Today Senator Brownback takes to the New
York Times op-ed page to [1]try and explain his position.
The premise behind the question seems to be that if one does not
unhesitatingly assert belief in evolution, then one must
necessarily believe that God created the world and everything in it
in six 24-hour days. But limiting this question to a stark choice
between evolution and creationism does a disservice to the
complexity of the interaction between science, faith and reason.
The heart of the issue is that we cannot drive a wedge between
faith and reason. I believe wholeheartedly that there cannot be any
contradiction between the two. The scientific method, based on
reason, seeks to discover truths about the nature of the created
order and how it operates, whereas faith deals with spiritual
truths. The truths of science and faith are complementary: they
deal with very different questions, but they do not contradict each
other because the spiritual order and the material order were
created by the same God.
Senator Brownback wants to argue that religious faith in a divine
creator is compatible with the science of evolution, but he can't
bring himself to embrace any aspects of evolutionary theory that are
rejected by creationists. He explicitly accepts microevolution and
rejects evolution insofar as it entails "an exclusively materialistic,
deterministic vision," carefully eliding over his views of evolution's
role in speciation. It's as if he wants to appear to take a position
while leaving plenty of room to spin his views to various
constituencies -- or, as [2]Jack Balkin suggests here -- pretend to
engage the subject with intellectual sophistication while continuing
to reject the scientific validity of evolution.
References
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/opinion/31brownback.html
2. http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/05/no-sam-brownback-doesnt-believe-in.html
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