Darwin and Fundamentalism

Author: Merrill Davis Zhang Zengyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: This struggle is not against Darwin, but against the authority bestowed upon Darwin, and against the interpreters of Darwin. If both the interpreters of Darwin and his opponents persist in suppressing, ignoring, and preventing well-reasoned and legitimate questioning, then everything we cherish and establish will become insignificant. Without a doubt, Darwin's On the Origin of Species is one of the most important works in the hall of science, but can we treat Darwin's theory of evolution as an established scientific fact? Unlike fictional stories, the famous Scopes Trial of 1925 did not establish the status of scientific truth or prove the error of creationism. Now, the biblical creationism has been revitalized under the guise of creation science. Fundamentalists advocate that education based on facts should teach both evolution and creationism. Should we treat creation science as a myth unrelated to science? Has evolutionism transformed into a fundamentalist theology? Or is it merely a tool for maintaining scientific orthodoxy? Is the debate between the two religious prejudice against scientific prejudice, or bad religion against bad science? Darwin and Fundamentalism argues that behind these simplified newspaper headlines, there are many important issues. What is reasonable to believe, how to use scientific methods cautiously—these are highly complex questions that are closely related to how we research and evaluate evolutionary concepts.