SCOPES TRIAL #3

MOONEY, C. (2005) TRIAL AND ERROR, NEW REPUBLIC, 10/17, 18-20.

In Harrisburg, another trial about evolution is making its way to a conclusion. The civil suit will be decided by a judge. 25 years ago, another trial also came to the conclusion that creationism was not a science. This time the issue is intelligent design. The case so far seems to be proceeding along the lines of the 1980 case (Scopes trial #2). If the trajectory is completed, it would appear that ID will be deemed not a science. However, even the remotest change can have the effect of changing the outcome.

Further, Scopes trial # 1, revisited in INHERIT THE WIND, has roughly the same outcome, creationism is not a science. By now, one knows that evolution means that species that are the most adaptable survive. They are not necessarily the strongest or even the smartest; the species survives because it is the best fit for its environment. ID indicates that the earth is thousands of years old, not millions, and humans came to be by a special if not divine incursion about 6 or 7 thousands years ago. Homo sapiens (humans) were created in less than a week. Every environmental characteristic had to be just right for this to occur. This is so incredible that only act by a designer of some sort that is larger than all of us could have created this.

Stay tuned for the outcome.

THEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

As a youngster and into adulthood, I recall that many scholars came to roughly this stance. There is a God (imminent/eminent) that not only created the big bang but did so millions of years ago. The Jewish Scriptures, Bible, and Koran are really describing a day to mean an epoch of time involving millions of years. The day in the life of God is not the same as the day of a human. For the religions of the east in Analects, Tao-Te-Ching and the Buddhist scriptures, God is both instigator and process of creation. In either interpretation, creatures evolve and from this become humans who are interconnected with other creatures. Each individual has a role to play and a reason to be. Further, they carry the genetics of thousands of ancestors. They also inherit the culture that is an admixture of all of the sciences and the social methodologies as well as the humanities.
God appears to intervene in everyday life and in historic settings. However, what ever God does is subject to debate and /or is completely immeasurable. There may be a God as reported in various scriptures and those that return from the dead. The most apparent intervention and yet again not measurable is serendipidity where ideas appear to come from surprise.