A Who’s Who of evolutionists
by Don Batten
Some protest that ‘you can believe in God and evolution’, and
that evolution does not necessarily exclude God. However, many of these people also
believe that evolution explains everything. If ‘god’ had a role at all
it was in ‘creating’ the early universe, or causing a big bang in such
a way that evolution would operate. In other words, ‘god’s’ part
is invisible, not obvious. This clearly contradicts many Bible passages which teach
that creation proclaims God’s handiwork and clearly reveals
his attributes (for example,
Psalm 19:1–4;
Romans 1:20).
In effect these protesters are atheistic in their way of thinking. They have evolution,
plus ‘god’, but evolution does not need ‘god’, so ‘god’
is totally superfluous in their way of thinking about the world.
If we consider a Who’s Who of those who are most visible in their
public promotion and defence of evolution—since World War II, for example—a
clear pattern emerges: they are virtually all avowed atheists! Note the names:
- Ernst Mayr, zoologist.
- J.B.S. Haldane, geneticist, who was also a Stalinist.
- Carl Sagan, a promoter of the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI),
and author of the anti-Christian book and movie Contact.
- Isaac Asimov, science fiction writer, signatory to the Humanist Manifesto II, and past president of the American Humanist Association.
- Sir Julian Huxley, first Director-General of UNESCO and signatory to the Humanist
Manifesto II.
- Jacques Monod, Nobel Prize-winning biologist, and signatory to the Humanist Manifesto II.1
The more recent crop of evolutionary proselytisers include:
- Stephen Jay Gould, a Marxist, author of many popular works promoting the evolutionary view.
- Richard Dawkins, author of The Blind Watchmaker and other anti-creationist books, now employed by Oxford University (U.K.) to promote the ‘public understanding
of science’ (i.e. evolutionary naturalism).
- Daniel Dennett, author of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea who argues gleefully
that evolution eats away all foundations of religion and morality.
- Eugenie Scott, head of the so-called National Center for Science Education which
grew out of efforts by secular humanists to oppose creationists.
- Ian Plimer, anti-creationist Australian professor of geology, and Australian
Humanist of the Year in 1995.
Many in the above list of overt atheists are strident in their opposition to everything
‘creationist’ and have contributed to publications and court cases opposing
creationist ideas. Many promote censorship of creationist views, even exploiting
legal loopholes (such as the U.S. Supreme Court’s misapplication of the First
Amendment) in attempts to silence creationists.
Even though 39% of scientists in the United States believe in a ‘personal
god’,2 theistic scientists are
conspicuous by their absence from the above lists of public promoters of evolution.
Why are atheists at the forefront in promoting evolution?
Atheist Frank Zindler said,
‘The most devastating thing though that biology did to Christianity was the
discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve never were
real people the central myth of Christianity is destroyed. If there never was an
Adam and Eve there never was an original sin. If there never was an original sin
there is no need of salvation. If there is no need of salvation there is no need
of a saviour. And I submit that puts Jesus, historical or otherwise, into the ranks
of the unemployed. I think that evolution is absolutely the death knell of Christianity.’3
We see, therefore, that evolution is foundational/necessary for their faith that
there is no Creator and that everything made itself (i.e. evolution). So, that is
why atheists are at the forefront in promoting the public acceptance of evolution—it
promotes their atheistic faith. They recognise that if they can persuade the general
population to accept evolution as ‘fact’, it will be the death of (real)
Christianity.
References and notes
- The late Theodosius Dobzhansky was also a prominent public promoter
of evolution and apparently claimed ‘Russian Orthodox’ affiliation.
However, in his 1970 book Mankind Evolving he favourably quoted
Teilhard de Chardin, ‘Evolution [not God—DB] is a light which illuminates
all facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow’. Earlier,
he wrote: ‘Attempts to restrict the concept of evolution to biology are gratuitous.
Life is a product of the evolution of inorganic nature, and man is a product of
the evolution of life.’ (T. Dobzhansky, Changing man, Science
155:409, 1967). Dobzhansky’s ‘god’ was irrelevant
to his view of reality. Return to text.
- Edward Larson and Larry Witham, Scientists still keeping the faith,
Nature 386(6624):435–436, 1997.
Return to text.
- Frank Zindler, American atheist, in a debate with William Craig, Atheism vs
Christianity video, Zondervan, 1996. Return to text.
(Available in Dutch)
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