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Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Essentials: Light is useful for seeing and Essays are Useful for Reading


I experienced a lot of angst as a young believer and biology student. I can’t help but wonder if much of it could have been avoided if I would have looked into Dobzhanzky's essay. If I would have known then what I know now about the contents of the famous essay I may have been less troubled by my professor’s statement and perhaps I could have moved past it more quickly (and probably worried about something else).  However the conditions of that time created specific selective pressures that influenced my reading, thinking and praying and ultimately shaped me into who I am today.
I now present 3 things that I now know about "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light Of Evolution" (and some quotes from the essay to highlight the points). – Quotes from the essay are in italics. I also must say there really is no substitute for reading this essay and I highly recommend it.
1.       The essay is not hostile to the Bible or Christianity but rather endorses interacting with scripture and science in a sound and sustainable way.

Does the evolutionary doctrine clash with religious faith? It does not. It is a blunder to mistake the Holy Scriptures for elementary textbooks of astronomy, geology, biology, and anthropology. Only if symbols are construed to mean what they are not intended to mean can there arise imaginary, insoluble conflicts. As pointed out above, the blunder leads to blasphemy: the Creator is accused of systematic deceitfulness.
Moreover, in his worldview science and faith were not segregated in watertight compartments, as they are with so many people. They were harmoniously fitting parts of his worldview.

…biologic research shows no sign of approaching completion; quite the opposite is true. Disagreements and clashes of opinion are rife among biologists, as they should be in a living and growing science. Antievolutionists mistake, or pretend to mistake, these disagreements as indications of dubiousness of the entire doctrine of evolution. Their favorite sport is stringing together quotations, carefully and sometimes expertly taken out of context, to show that nothing is really established or agreed.

2.        Over 4 pages of essay some of the basic tenets of biological evolution are laid out by a man who understands the science including its history, intricacies and limits.
Seen in the light of evolution, biology is, perhaps, intellectually the most satisfying and inspiring science. Without that light it becomes a pile of sundry facts some of them interesting or curious but making no meaningful picture as a whole. 

There are no alternatives to evolution as history that can withstand critical examination. Yet we are constantly learning new and important facts about evolutionary mechanisms.

3.       OK this one doesn’t come from the essay itself but a thought I’ve had about that fateful biology lecture and my professor. It occurred to me that my professor used the quote to demonstrate two points. The first was explicit about the science and significance of Evolution. I’m confident that this was the main point. The second point is purely conjecture.  Maybe my professor used that specific essay title because he knew its contents and religious implications.  I know he was involved in some degree of a Christian faith tradition and maybe he was indirectly giving us a hint to go read that essay. Maybe he knew the anxiety that I, and other budding biologists, were feeling and wanted us to explore the essay in order to know that we were not along in our questions. Maybe he wanted us to know that there was a reasonable way to be Christian and Scientists. Maybe, or maybe not. It could have been God using that essay title and that would have been pretty cool too.

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