The ID Report

NOTE: In honor of Darwin's 200th birthday, this is a special repeat performance of my February, 2008 essay. Enjoy, a fresh new essay is on the way! -- RMB

The problem is not, as is sometimes popularly held, that religion opposes science. The problem is that religion has joined science. -- Cornelius G. Hunter, Science's Blind Spot, the Unseen Religion of Scientific Naturalism

Sunday, February 12, 1809 witnessed the birth of two babies destined to change the world. One lived a life so momentous he is remembered today with his iconic bearded visage engraved on paper money and a special day set aside in February to honor his birthday. The other is U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Charles Darwin, looking quite bum on the backside of Her Majesty's ten-pound note, is the one set to give the global community its first unholy holy-day. Move over Lincoln, make room for the "emancipator of the mind" as this February we all celebrate Darwin Day with the most anti-religious religion on earth: Humanism.

Touted as "an international recognition of science and humanity," this year's Darwin Day Celebration is a sponsored program of those whose "program" also includes a theology of active God-denial--The Institute for Humanist Studies. Humanists are those thought-suppressing free thinkers bound up in the faith of naturalism who prattle about preaching a Godless hope for the future (their Godless hope for the past speaking for itself). Believing themselves free, contemporary Humanists are simply the latest group happily enslaved to atheism. And while Darwin is certainly responsible for gifting Humanists with intellectual fulfillment, "celebrating" may be the wrong response for all who recall last century's frequent outbursts of "science and humanity".

Complementing Darwin Day by complimenting Darwin's Way are a host of Humanists and their Darwinist allies pushing this year's Evolution Weekend. Coming to a church-like facility near you, Evolution Weekend represents the religious outreach arm of Darwinism. Realizing God-thoughts come in many varieties, Evolution Weekend replaces past year's overly exclusive Evolution Sunday as one religious group's "attempt to be more welcoming to members of all religions." Like a gift horse of the Trojan style religious Humanists are rolling (with open mouth but no one looking) into traditional religious orders everywhere offering "sermons" and "meaningful conversations" to show that "religion and science are not adversaries."

Holy Cow(ards)! Darwinists succumb to theophobic spasms every time someone whispers "intelligent design" within a mile of a public school, and yet they wish to breeze into traditional churches to have "meaningful conversations"? Cowards all! Such Darwinists are adversarial poltroons who forbid meaningful conversation in the school building but nevertheless wish to freely trumpet their trumpery in the church building. And, sadly, it's working. No longer required to don ill-fitting sheep skins, wolves in wolf clothing now mingle freely among the sheepish they find conveniently unattended by anyone versed in twaddle detection. Religion and science not adversaries? It depends on which religion and what science. But be warned, wolves and sheep are not adversaries either, for long.

History shows that transparent duplicity thrives among ideologues high on certainty and low on tolerance. Certainty, like safety, is better in numbers, and Darwinists know they have the upper cultural hand in a world steeped in the faith of naturalism--the philosophical idea that all nature can be explained as the sole result of unguided physical processes. Regardless of the actual truth of the matter, with Origin of Species in one hand and a sword in the other, Darwin's miscreant recreants believe might makes truth-be-damned right. As a result the world is faced with a growing number of distorted-truth brokers in a new breed of merciless humans: religious Darwinists. Whether Holy, Wholly, or Holey, Darwin may not be Lord or God, but he is almighty.

Holy Darwinists find Darwinism not merely a scientific theory but the necessary creation story for a Godless faith they call atheism. Ironically, being strong in Darwin and the power of his might doesn't stop Holy Darwinists from spending more time talking about God than do most Christians, Jews or Muslims. Seemingly obsessed with God-thoughts, Holy Darwinists write books about Him, make speeches about him, engage in debates about Him, and generally prove his existence by displaying their utter hatred for Him. Being coarse and generally uncultured in speech and action, Holy Darwinists are nevertheless the vanguard of the breed. Like an embarrassing zealot of any faith, the faithful are loath to intervene in their blasphemous mission to roll over any opposition; after all, they consider, Holy Rollers may be an embarrassment, but they are our embarrassment.

Wholly Darwinists are those for whom Darwinism is simply a convenient creation story said to unify all of biology, a narrative uncritically accepted with little or no thought. Likely the largest of the Darwinian tribes, these Cultural Darwinists fail to understand why anyone really cares about the "origins debate" in the first place. Convinced there is no controversy, and wishing to avoid argument on a subject for which disagreement is merely another academic distraction and unproductive exercise, Wholly Darwinists abide by the maxim: "Darwin said it, I believe it, that settles it." However, like a pew-warming Methodist confronted by a Bible-bashing atheist, Wholly Darwinists can get downright feisty when confronted with faith-challenging facts. With nowhere to go but a faith in another's faith, Wholly Darwinists are prone to vocally hold to the dogmatic line they were told is true. Believing that all scientific challengers to naturalistic Darwinism are automatically religiously motivated, Wholly Darwinists would rather fight than switch. And for a group that denies having a god in this fight, Wholly Darwinists can be a scrappy little bunch.

On the positive side, small but growing numbers steadily discover the Darwinian Underground, virtual catacombs filled with those conflicted souls who understand Darwinism fully. Because Darwinism wholly understood is Darwinism understood as holey, Holey Darwinists live like doubters in a monastery, convinced of a new truth but vested in the old. With every passing day bringing a flood of indoctrination-defying evidence, Holey Darwinists live lives of exceptionally quiet desperation. Like modern Galileo's convinced of data over dogma, Holey Darwinists are understandably hesitant to challenge religious authorities Galileo-style. Watching their openly doubting brothers get flattened by the Holy Rollers causes Holey Darwinists to carry on cautiously, devotedly partaking in public services while feeling forsaken in private devotions.

While Holey Darwinists blog under assumed names and Wholly Darwinists enjoy a state of bliss, Holy Darwinists reign over a merciless hierarchy of ecclesiastical thugs. Ready to crush dissent at the first whiff of non-Darwinian incense, Holy Darwinists are hell-bent on ending careers, ruining reputations, and disrupting the personal lives of every person who seeks in any way to seriously propose material, observable evidence that threatens el-Darwin. Employing the ACLU, tenure boards, and foul-mouthed blogs of adult junior-highers, Holy Darwinists resemble the Papal Inquisition, sans integrity. After all, even 12th century heretic chasers never dreamed of infiltrating the Bons Hommes et Bonnes Femmes of the Cathars with "Catholic Weekend".

By singling out "evolution" as "science" in search of peace with religion, dogmatic Darwinists finally have solid evidence for something: the true nature of the question, "where do we come from?" With no thought of "Gravity Weekend" or "Photosynthesis Weekend", Evolution Weekend emissaries reveal the true ideological conflict not as "religion versus science" but as "science in the service of naturalism versus science in the service of truth". After all, if Evolution Weekend warriors were informed and honest (the probability of the combination being almost nil) they would admit that true religion and false science are indeed adversaries. But Darwinists believe neither exists except, perhaps, among redneck creationists, so who cares?

As with all duplicitous endeavors, there is tragic irony in Evolution Weekend. Like the self-righteous man on the gallows seeking last second support from above, today's Darwinist missionaries may find their desires fulfilled in unexpected ways. Ignoring St. Huxley's warning against science suicidally adopting a creed, Darwin's religious proselytizers mistake the gallows for a stage and misjudge the gathered crowd as entirely adoring. But as they grandstand atop the trap door of religious motivation wrapped in scientific piety, many there watch with mixed emotions, not only at the spectacle, but at the specter of creed-laden origins science falling to a sudden end.

Roddy Bullock is the Executive Director of the Intelligent Design Network of Ohio (www.idnetohio.com) and is the author of The Cave Painting: A Parable of Science, published by Access Research Network. Send comments to: roddybullock@idnetohio.com.

Copyright (c) 2008 Roddy M. Bullock, all rights reserved. Quotes and links permitted with attribution.

Publisher and agent inquiries welcome.

References:

Cornelius G. Hunter, Science's Blind Spot, the Unseen Religion of Scientific Naturalism
http://www.amazon.com/Sciences-Blind-Spot-Scientific-Naturalism/dp/158743170X/ref=pd_sim_b_img_2

Darwin Day info: http://www.darwinday.org/

Humanist Info: Institute for Humanist Studies
http://humaniststudies.org/hm3.html

Evolution Weekend info:
http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evolution_weekend_2008.htm

Info on the Inquisition against the Cathars: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism

Thomas Henry Huxley quote: Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.