HOW TO NOT GET QUOTED BY ANTIEVOLUTIONISTS

Young-earth and antievolutionary claims are popular, despite their lack of scientific merit, because they are perceived as supporting the theological or philosophical views of their audiences. This assumes that evolutionary or old-earth principles are in conflict with these views and that young-earth or antievolutionary claims are compatible with them. However, neither of these is necessarily true. To counter the first assumption, as scientists we need to be careful to distinguish between our own philosophical or religious beliefs and science. A popular antievolutionary ploy is to cite all the evil philosophical or moral views that have been supported by “evolutionary” arguments. However, science only indirectly informs us on moral issues, and claims to support particular philosophical or moral views using evolutionary evidence frequently distort the evidence. Likewise, we must make sure our claims are accurate. For example, many popular, purportedly historical, books promote a model of warfare of science and religion by misrepresenting the history of scientific and religious ideas. Emphasizing the compatibility of science with a wide range of philosophical and religious views may counteract the misperception that evolution is inherently incompatible with traditional religious views.

Secondly, many young-earth or antievolutionary claims are in fact incompatible with traditional religious views. By assuming that antievolutionists accurately represent the religious views that they claim to represent, we may unwittingly give them undeserved credibility with their primary audiences. Each religious group has its own ideas of what constitutes theological error. However, as antievolutionists are also quite diverse, no one can possibly agree with all of them. Also, many general points are common to a wide range of religious perspectives, especially the set of perspectives likely to object to evolution. My own theology, like that of most U.S. antievolutionists, reflects a traditional Christian viewpoint. From this viewpoint, common errors of antievolutionists include denying supernatural involvement in non-miraculous events, tolerating false claims, and making creation-related issues (rather than theologically more important things like God) central to the religion.