Creation at Wabash
In the midst of the culture wars here in modern day American, the issue between creation and evolution has received much controversy. The basic premise presented in Darwin’s theory is that when life began as a series of simple organisms, they in turn changed by pure genetic chance which gave rise to new physical features for these organisms. Those organisms that were fit enough survived and continued the process, while those that were unfit perished. From this premise another idea arises that says that life is based purely on random chance and has no purpose. This has been the crucial suggestion that has received critical analysis from other fields of studies. It is even a major point being analyzed here at Wabash College in a class taught by Dr. Webb. I had the privilege to audit his class for a day and was able to interview him afterwards. Many have wondered (as have I) why such a course and topic would be offered here. “It is an important topic that affects every aspect of American life from the law, public education, to church–state relations, theology and philosophy,” Dr. Webb says. “So it’s incredibly controversial. A lot of people have feelings about it, so it’s important to keep it clear and take a look at topics that raise a lot of passion.”
Dr. Webb’s class is offered as a religion course with a theological mindset which deals with various attempts to reconcile (or reject) creation and/or evolution. A major issue brought up in the class deals with strict Darwinists, those who reject any notion of a creator. Two famous strict Darwinists are Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins, the best selling author of The God Delusion. The issue that causes many religious individuals to object to a strict Darwinist’s point of view is the notion that life is completely random and has no purpose.
Alternatives to this point of view come in many forms such as theistic evolution (the notion that a supernatural being helped to guide the evolution process along), Intelligent Design (the notion that features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection), and creation science (which rejects the Darwinian model all together in favor of a young earth which fits with the Genesis story.) All three have been heavily attacked by strict Darwinists for being nothing more than “religion in disguise.” A prominent example was the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, which stated that Intelligent Design is not science and could not be taught as an alternative to evolution in a public school science class.
As the evidence on both sides is compelling, leading individuals are faced with choices as to what interpretation sounds more logical. The strict Darwinist side offers a multitude of evidence in the form of the fossil record, biogeography, comparative anatomy, embryology, and comparative molecular biology. Meanwhile, proponents of Intelligent Design claim to have mathematical and statistical analysis on their side, stating that it is statistically improbable that life began as random chance and continued that way. When Dr. David Menton from Answers in Genesis came to Wabash College as a guest lecturer last year, one topic he discussed was the probability of the proteins in hemoglobin correctly sequencing to function properly. The likely of this happening is so miniscule that it would be nearly impossible to have happened by chance. In order to grasp the size of that number, Dr. Menton told the audience that the probability of proteins coming together to form hemoglobin is far greater than the estimated total number of atoms in the observable universe, or 1081. Such an improbable number provides weight to the idea of random chance is not very likely to occur.
Another issue that is often mentioned is whether or not any of the alternatives of evolution can be considered “science.” Since Dr. Webb’s course is offered as a religion class, the topics of discussion are not obviously limited to those scientific in nature. It allows for more ability to discuss other points of views and have to freedom to be open minded to other alternatives. Even Dr Webb says that among the Intelligent Design movement, there are even agnostics who disagree with the theory of evolution. “The argument is that the people behind Intelligent Design are conservative Christians. This is simply not true. There are even individuals who support ID who are agnostic.”
The idea of teaching a course about evolution and creation and how to better understand each has been a project for Dr. Webb’s for some time. He is currently writing a book entitled Dome of Eden, which will offer Dr. Webb’s own personal analysis on the subject.
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