It’s only evolution, but I like it
Charles Darwin, 1863
I don’t know very much about evolution, really. But I fully support it. Does this make me hypocritical? Maybe, but I don’t think so. Here are five reasons why.
(1) Biologists that I know. I have had the pleasure of knowing a number of biologists. They tell me that it’s a great scientific theory, the fundamental idea underlying all of modern biology. When a large number of extremely intelligent friends tell you something is true, you should consider it carefully. Another point in favor of evolution here is that these people come from a broad range of philosophical and religious backgrounds. As a group they are not trying to sell me anything. They have no specific political or religious agenda. If they were all Christians, materialists, or left-handed trilingual ex-dentists, I would begin to wonder.
(2) My own experience with science. Starting with Newton, science is almost never what you expect. Newton tells us that the gravitational force (whatever that is) works across extremely long distances and through the vacuum of space. This does not “make sense” at all. Quantum mechanics is a philosophical rabbit hole. General relativity tells us that space is curved. None of these theories — yes, Newtonian gravity is a theory — “make sense.” The same is true with evolution: It doesn’t “make sense.” Fish growing legs, even over thousands of generations and millions of years, doesn’t “make sense.” But, like Newtonian gravity, quantum mechanics, and general relativity, evolution works. And that’s exactly what science is supposed to do.
(3) It’s a really beautiful theory. It has the hallmarks of good scientific theories: (a) It explains a lot. That is, it works. That is, it makes a large number of phenomena cohere by drawing them together under a single framework; (b) it is simple. That is, the mechanisms that drive it — random mutations, natural selection — are so simple as to be nearly obvious in retrospect; and (c) it makes testable predictions and can be falsified. If a dinosaur footprint overlying a human footprint could be found — and despite the claims of some, none have yet been discovered — it would mean serious trouble for evolution.
(4) It fits. Evolution by natural selection coheres well with the stuff that I do know about geology and astronomy. It is also consistent with what I believe about God (I do have some rather pointed questions for God about killer asteroids and catastrophic tsunamis, however).
(5) The evidence in favor of it. So far as I understand it, it’s pretty convincing.
I could probably add more, but good grief, this is enough. The folks at the Creation Museum and the gang that invented “the science of Intelligent Design” can raise hell about it until the Sun kicks the cosmic bucket, but as for me, I’m sticking with evolution.
