Evolution and Religion: Why they are not Mutually Exclusive

Sara Sawyer, Ross Conover, and Mark James

19 March 2013

Outline

• Definition of Evolution• History of Evolutionary Thought• Evidence for Evolution• Evolutionary Misconceptions• Evolution and Religion

The Unifying Theory of Biology

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”

–Theodosius Dobzhansky

What is Evolution?

1. Any process of formation or growth; development– E.g., the evolution of the airplane

2. Biology. change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.

Source: Dictionary.com

What is Evolution?

• Population – Group of individuals of same species in same time & place

• An observable phenomenon

• Gene – Sequence of DNA

that codes for a trait

Evolution Example: Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria

• Initial population: mixed resistance to antibiotics

• Post antibiotics: bacteria have high resistance

• Is this Evolution?• Yes, change in gene pool

in the population over generations

A History of Evolutionary Thought

• Aristotle (384-322 BC) – The universe was static– Organisms were created, then

remained unchanged

• Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) – Transmutationism

• Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) – Transmutationism

A History of Evolutionary Thought• Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

proposed…– Evolution by “inheritance of acquired

traits”

• Robert Chambers (1802-1871) published in 1844…– Transmutation theory

• Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875)– Geologic change from the steady

accumulation of minute changes over enormously long time periods

Charles Darwin: Galapagos Archipelago, 1835

"The distribution of tenants of this archipelago", he wrote, "would not be nearly so wonderful, if for instance, one island has a mocking-thrush and a second island some other quite distinct species... But it is the circumstance that several of the islands possess their own species of tortoise, mocking-thrush, finches, and numerous plants, these species having the same general habits, occupying analogous situations, and obviously filling the same place in the natural economy of this archipelago, that strikes me with wonder."

Alfred Russel Wallace: Malay Archipelago, 1855

• On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type

“The life of wild animals is a struggle for existence. The full exertion of all their faculties and all their energies is required to preserve their own existence and provide for that of their infant offspring. The possibility of procuring food during the least favourable seasons, and of escaping the attacks of their most dangerous enemies, are the primary conditions which determine the existence both of individuals and of entire species.”

Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

1. Offspring surplus– Thomas Malthus

The Origin of Species (Nov 24, 1859) “Descent with modification” by “natural selection”

2. Trait Variation

3. Heredity• Traits are passed down

4. Survival and Reproduction of those with most favorable traits

Example of Natural Selection

“Reproduction of Best Adapted”• S. P. Gordon et al. 2009. Adaptive changes in life history and

survival following a new guppy introduction. The American Naturalist 174:34-45.

Implications of evolution

• All organisms are descended from a common ancestor

• Natural selection is the major mechanism that causes evolution

Evidence for Evolution

• Fossils

Evidence of Evolution

Embryology• Human • Rabbit• Chicken • Salamander• Fish

Comparative Anatomy• Vestigial Structures

Evidence for Evolution• Molecular (Genes)– Toolkit genes: govern construction• Body plan, number, identity, and pattern of body parts

– Toolkit genes are a small fraction of all genes– Hox genes control the body plan of animal along

the head-tail axis• All animals have Hox genes

Mutations in Hox genes affect body plans

Hox genes function equally across animals

• The mouse Hox gene that controls eye development functions in fruit flies

Descent with modification can result

from changes in Hox gene expression

The transition from one vertebra type to another corresponds to the anterior expression limit of the Hoxc-6 gene.

Mouse Snake

Biological Evolution: Misconceptions1. It is not science because it is not observable or

testable2. It’s “just” a theory3. It’s a theory about the origin of life4. It’s a theory in crisis and is collapsing as

scientists lose confidence in it5. Teachers should teach “both sides” of the

evolution issue and let students decide6. Evolution and religion are incompatible

Source: Understanding Evolution, www.evolution.berkeley.edu

Misconception #1: It is not science because it is not observable or testable

• Other examples: Pepper moths change color pattern, Hudson river cod PCB resistance, crop herbicide resistance, pesticide resistance, annually updated flu vaccine, tracking disease outbreaks

• Evolution via Roadkill– Cliff Swallows– 1982-2012– Dead birds had larger wings– 111 – 106 mm wingspan

Misconception #2: Evolution (by Natural Selection) is “just” a theory

• Theory (everyday use): A conjecture, an opinion, a speculation or an assumption based on limited information, not necessarily facts.

• Scientific Theory: A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experimentation.– Not in any way, shape, or form a guess or hunch– Theory = Fact (e.g., Theory of Gravity)

“Scientists most often use the word "fact" to describe an observation. But scientists can also use fact to mean something that has been tested or observed so many times that there is no longer a compelling reason to keep testing or looking for examples. The occurrence of evolution in this sense is fact. Scientists no longer question whether descent with modification occurred because the evidence is so strong.”

–US National Academy of Science

Misconception #3: Evolution is a theory about the origin of life

Evolution: change in a population’s gene pool across generations

“Life on Earth evolved gradually beginning with one primitive species--perhaps a self-replicating molecule--that lived more than 3.5 billion years ago; it then branched out over time, throwing off many new and diverse species; and the mechanism for most (but not all) of evolutionary change is natural selection.”

–Jerry Coyne, Evolutionary Geneticist at U of Chicago

Misconception #4: It’s a theory in crisis and is collapsing as scientists lose confidence in

it

• Newsweek 1987 – 99.86% US Earth & Life Scientists support evolution

• Nearly every scientific society, representing hundreds of thousands of scientists, has issued official statements in support of evolution (Kitzmiller v. Dover, 2005)

• Pew Research Center Poll in 2009

"So enormous, ramifying, and consistent has the evidence for evolution become that if anyone could now disprove it, I should have my conception of the orderliness of the universe so shaken as to lead me to doubt even my own existence. If you like, then, I will grant you that in an absolute sense evolution is not a fact, or rather, that it is no more a fact than that you are hearing or reading these words.“

—1959, Hermann J. Muller The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

1946 "for the discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation"

Misconception #5: Teachers should teach “both sides” of the evolution issue and let

students decide

• The Discovery Institute, a pro-intelligent design lobby group in the US, claims that public schools should “teach the controversy” because of the lack of public support for evolution

• Intelligent Design (ID) is creationism in which…– “Designer” substitutes for God– “Design” substitutes for creation

• Creationism not pseudoscience, but is outside the realm of scientific study– Not testable & based on faith

– Intelligent design is pseudoscience because it presents religion as being scientific• Used in attempt to get creationism taught in science classes of public schools

Kitzmiller v. Dover:Decision of the Court

• “For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the religious nature of ID would be readily apparent to an objective observer, adult or child.”

• “The evidence at trial demonstrates that ID is nothing less than the progeny of creationism.”

• “. . . it is additionally important to note that ID has failed to gain acceptance in the scientific community, it has not generated peer-reviewed publications, nor has it been the subject of testing and research.”

• “. . . we find that while ID arguments may be true, a proposition on which the Court takes no position, ID is not science.”

• Lerner 2000, Good Science, Bad Science: Teaching Evolution in the States

Misconception #6: Evolution and religion are incompatible

• Biblical Inspiration– The Bible is all human.• Likely compatible

– The Bible is both human and divine.• Likely compatible

– The Bible is all divine.• Likely incompatible

If Bible is All Devine…Uh-oh!

• Slavery (Leviticus 25:39; Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22; Titus 2:9.

• Polygamy (Jacob, Leah and Rachel; King David, King Solomon)

• Shellfish (Leviticus 11:10-12)• Clothing of blended fibers (Leviticus

19:19)

Science informs our understanding

• You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken (Psalm 104:5, NRSV).

• You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting (Psalm 104:19, NRSV).

Karl Giberson• I find no compelling reason to

think that the central message of Christianity is incompatible with humanity’s kinship with the rest of the animal world. In fact, this continuity with the animal world may place increasing theological significance on the welfare of animals and ecological responsibility.

• --Saving Darwin

Dr. Francis S. Collins, Ph.D.

Darwin’s theory is so undergirded now by science that to reject it is almost impossible if you’re really willing to look at the evidence. That is a great threat to those who have been taught, many of them from the time they first entered Sunday school, that evolution is the enemy, and that if you start accepting it in any way, you’ll go down a slippery slope and end up losing your faith. I can cite examples to the contrary, of young people who were in that circumstance, saw the evidence for evolution, felt that meant the end of their faith, but then encountered this alternative view that evolution is just God’s method of creation and found that to be a wonderful alternative that they could embrace.

United Methodist Church

• “We find that science’s descriptions of cosmological, geological, and biological evolution are not in conflict with theology”

Pope John Paul II• “With regard to other disciplines,

most of my contacts were with physicists. In the course of our many encounters, we would speak, for example of the most recent discoveries in cosmology. This was a fascinating study, which confirmed for me Saint Paul’s dictum that certain knowledge of God can also be reached through knowledge of the created world (cf. Rom. 1:20-23)”—(Rise Let Us be on Our Way)

"'Humani Generis'," he stated, "considered the doctrine of 'evolutionism' as a serious hypothesis, worthy of a more deeply studied investigation and reflection on a par with the opposite hypothesis. ... Today, more than a half century after this encyclical, new knowledge leads us to recognize in the theory of evolution more than a hypothesis. ... The convergence, neither sought nor induced, of results of work done independently one from the other, constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.“

--1996, Pope John Paul II

Union of Reform Judaism

• The Union of Reform Judaism resolves to:• 6. Oppose government efforts and polices

that seek to redefine science or the scientific method to incorporate religious, theological or other theories, including “intelligent design” and creationism, that are neither testable by experiment nor observation.”

Pat Robertson, 2012• “You go back in time, you’ve got radiocarbon

dating, you got all these things, and you’ve got the carcasses of dinosaurs frozen in time out in the Dakotas,” said Robertson Tuesday. He continued, “There was a time when these giant reptiles were on the earth and it was before the time of the Bible. So, don’t try and cover it up and make like everything was 6,000 years.”

• “If you fight science, you’re going to lose your children, and I believe in telling it the way it was.”

E.O. Wilson

“There is a hereditary selective advantage to membership in a powerful group united by devout belief and purpose. Even when individuals subordinate themselves and risk death in common cause, their genes are more likely to be transmitted to the next generation than are those of competing resolve.”

Gallup Poll 1997

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”

Theodosius Dobzhansky

“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.”

“Does the evolutionary doctrine clash with religious faith? It does not.”

http://www.2think.org/dobzhansky.shtml