God: The Failed Hypothesis by Victor Stenger Read Free Book Online Page B

hypothesis of a God who created humans as a distinct life-form.
    The fossil record, the existence of transitional species, and the actual observation of evolution in the laboratory falsify the hypothesis of a God who created separate “kinds” or species of life-forms at one time in history and left them unchanged since.
    It might have been otherwise.
    Many believers see no conflict between evolution and their faith. After all, God can do anything he wants. If he wanted to create life by means of evolution, then that’s what he did. However, other believers have good reason to regard evolution as threatening to their own faith in the purposeful, divine creation of human life 6 .
    Evolution implies humanity was an accident and not the special creature of traditional doctrine. Many find this unacceptable and conclude, despite the evidence, that evolution must be wrong.
    However, if we are to rely on science as the arbiter of knowledge rather than ancient superstitions, the opposite conclusion is warranted. Evolution removes the need to introduce God at any step in the process of the development of life from the simplest earlier forms. It does not explain the origin of life, so this gap still remains. This is insufficient to maintain consistency for some believers, especially since evolution is in deep disagreement with the biblical narrative of simultaneously created immutable forms. Furthermore, we have no reason to conclude that life itself could not have had a purely material origin.
    The Creationists
    While a continuum of creationist views from extreme to moderate continues to be heard, we can still identify a few dominant strains. Let us look at the recent history. According to Ronald Numbers, author of the definitive early history
The Creationists,
the term
creationism
did not originally apply to all forms of antievolution 7 . Opponents of evolution were not always committed to the same, unified view of creation. However, by the 1920s, the biblical creation story became the standard alternative to evolution in the United States and the creationist movement its champion.
    In that decade, Christian fundamentalists in the United States took over the front line of the battle. Under their influence, three states—Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas—made the teaching of evolution a crime. Oklahoma prohibited textbooks promoting evolution, and Florida condemned the teaching of Darwinism as “subversive.”
    In 1925 biology teacher John Scopes was brought to court in Dayton, Tennessee, for teaching evolution. This led to the sensational “Monkey Trial,” with Clarence Darrow for the defense pitted against three-time losing Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution. Although Scopes was convicted (later overturned on appeal), the trial is still widely regarded as a public relations triumph for the Darwinians, as somewhat inaccurately depicted in the play and film
Inherit the Wind.
    A new strain of creationism appeared in 1961 with the publication of
The Genesis Flood
by theologian John C. Whitcomb Jr.
    and hydraulic engineer Henry M. Morris 8 , who were strongly influenced by earlier efforts by Seventh-day Adventist leader George McCready Price. The authors argued that science was compatible with Genesis, and although their scientific claims were not credible, conservative Christians sat up and took notice—
    recognizing a new strategy for combating hated Darwinism.
    Around 1970 Morris founded the Institute for Creation Science, which then led a movement to have the new “creation science” presented in public-school science classrooms. Biochemist Duane Gish traveled the country on behalf of the institute, giving talks and ambushing naive biologists in debates before huge, receptive audiences of churchgoers. Arkansas and Louisiana passed laws mandating the teaching of creation science alongside evolution.
    In 1982 a federal judge in Arkansas tossed out the law in that state, declaring