Liberals vs. Fundies
May 29th, 2009
This story popped up both in my New Scientist and my Panda’s Thumb feeds today.
New Scientist: Christians battle each other over evolution
Panda’s Thumb: But it’s not about religion …
So basically, we have the Discovery Institute, the pseudo-scientific Seattle organization, promoting Intelligent Design, who has launched a new website, Faith+Evolution. There they ask: “Can you believe in God and evolution at the same time?”, to which question they answer no.
On the other side we have the BioLogos Foundation, who is a foundation saying the opposite, and thus trying to force science and faith together. They state: “The BioLogos Foundation promotes the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms seeking harmony between these different perspectives.”
The latter organization is headed up by the former head of the Human Genome Project, which is a great scientific project on its own. Nevertheless, I don’t really see how you can unify science and religion completely. You will always have to have a neutral zone in between two such opposing and contradicting approaches to reality and truth. However I can see how honest scientists who also happen to hold religious views would want to do this, but I fear it is doomed to fail nonetheless. I think the concluding comment on the New Scientist article says it well.
Watching the intellectual feud between the Discovery Institute and BioLogos is a bit like watching a race in which both competitors are running full speed in the opposite direction of the finish line. It’s a notable contest, but I don’t see how either is going to come out the winner.
Still I believe that BioLogos has a much better argument, and would easily counter any brute ignorance from the Discovery Institute. At least this time, the scientific community and the skeptics can sit back and enjoy the show 