Evolution and Religion: Why they
are not Mutually Exclusive
Sara Sawyer, Ross Conover,
and Mark James
19 March 2013
Outline
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Definition of Evolution
History of Evolutionary Thought
Evidence for Evolution
Evolutionary Misconceptions
Evolution and Religion
The Unifying Theory of Biology
“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the
light of evolution”
–Theodosius Dobzhansky
What is Evolution?
1. Any process of formation or growth; development
– E.g., the evolution of the airplane
2. Biology. change in the gene pool of a population
from generation to generation by such processes
as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.
Source: Dictionary.com
What is Evolution?
• Gene
– Sequence of DNA
that codes for a
trait
• Population
– Group of individuals of same species in same time &
place
• An observable phenomenon
Evolution Example: Antibiotic
Resistance in Bacteria
• Initial population: mixed
resistance to antibiotics
• Post antibiotics: bacteria
have high resistance
• Is this Evolution?
• Yes, change in gene pool
in the population over
generations
A History of Evolutionary Thought
• Aristotle (384-322 BC)
– The universe was static
– Organisms were created, then
remained unchanged
• Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)
– Transmutationism
• Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)
– Transmutationism
A History of Evolutionary Thought
• Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)
proposed…
– Evolution by “inheritance of acquired
traits”
• Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875)
– Geologic change from the steady
accumulation of minute changes over
enormously long time periods
• Robert Chambers (1802-1871)
published in 1844…
– Transmutation theory
Charles Darwin: Galapagos
Archipelago, 1835
"The distribution of tenants of this
archipelago", he wrote, "would not be nearly
so wonderful, if for instance, one island has a
mocking-thrush and a second island some
other quite distinct species... But it is the
circumstance that several of the islands
possess their own species of tortoise,
mocking-thrush, finches, and numerous
plants, these species having the same general
habits, occupying analogous situations, and
obviously filling the same place in the natural
economy of this archipelago, that strikes me
with wonder."
Alfred Russel Wallace:
Malay Archipelago, 1855
• On the Tendency of Varieties to depart
indefinitely from the Original Type
“The life of wild animals is a struggle for
existence. The full exertion of all their
faculties and all their energies is required
to preserve their own existence and
provide for that of their infant offspring.
The possibility of procuring food during
the least favourable seasons, and of
escaping the attacks of their most
dangerous enemies, are the primary
conditions which determine the existence
both of individuals and of entire species.”
Theory of Evolution by Natural
Selection
The Origin of Species (Nov 24, 1859)
“Descent with modification” by “natural selection”
1. Offspring surplus
–
Thomas Malthus
2. Trait Variation
3. Heredity
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Traits are passed down
4. Survival and Reproduction of those with most
favorable traits
Example of Natural Selection
“Reproduction of Best Adapted”
• S. P. Gordon et al. 2009. Adaptive changes in life history and
survival following a new guppy introduction. The
American Naturalist 174:34-45.
Implications of evolution
• All organisms are descended from a common
ancestor
• Natural selection is the major mechanism that
causes evolution
Evidence for Evolution
• Fossils
Evidence of Evolution
Embryology
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Human
Rabbit
Chicken
Salamander
Fish
Comparative Anatomy
• Vestigial Structures
Evidence for Evolution
• Molecular (Genes)
– Toolkit genes: govern construction
• Body plan, number, identity, and pattern of body parts
– Toolkit genes are a small fraction of all genes
– Hox genes control the body plan of animal along
the head-tail axis
• All animals have Hox genes
Mutations in Hox genes affect body plans
Hox genes function equally across
animals
• The mouse Hox gene that controls eye
development functions in fruit flies
Descent with
modification can result
from changes in Hox
gene expression
The transition from one
vertebra type to another
corresponds to the anterior
expression limit of the Hoxc-6
gene.
Mouse
Snake
Biological Evolution: Misconceptions
1. It is not science because it is not observable or
testable
2. It’s “just” a theory
3. It’s a theory about the origin of life
4. It’s a theory in crisis and is collapsing as
scientists lose confidence in it
5. Teachers should teach “both sides” of the
evolution issue and let students decide
6. Evolution and religion are incompatible
Source: Understanding Evolution, www.evolution.berkeley.edu
Misconception #1: It is not science
because it is not observable or testable
• Evolution via Roadkill
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Cliff Swallows
1982-2012
Dead birds had larger wings
111 – 106 mm wingspan
• Other examples: Pepper moths change color pattern,
Hudson river cod PCB resistance, crop herbicide
resistance, pesticide resistance, annually updated flu
vaccine, tracking disease outbreaks
Misconception #2: Evolution (by Natural
Selection) is “just” a theory
• Theory (everyday use): A conjecture, an opinion,
a speculation or an assumption based on limited
information, not necessarily facts.
• Scientific Theory: A well-substantiated
explanation of some aspect of the natural world,
based on a body of facts that have been
repeatedly confirmed through observation and
experimentation.
– Not in any way, shape, or form a guess or hunch
– Theory = Fact (e.g., Theory of Gravity)
“Scientists most often use the word "fact" to
describe an observation. But scientists can also use
fact to mean something that has been tested or
observed so many times that there is no longer a
compelling reason to keep testing or looking for
examples. The occurrence of evolution in this sense
is fact. Scientists no longer question whether
descent with modification occurred because the
evidence is so strong.”
–US National Academy of Science
Misconception #3: Evolution is a
theory about the origin of life
Evolution: change in a population’s gene pool
across generations
“Life on Earth evolved gradually beginning with one
primitive species--perhaps a self-replicating
molecule--that lived more than 3.5 billion years
ago; it then branched out over time, throwing off
many new and diverse species; and the mechanism
for most (but not all) of evolutionary change is
natural selection.”
–Jerry Coyne,
Evolutionary Geneticist at U of Chicago
Misconception #4: It’s a theory in crisis
and is collapsing as scientists lose
confidence in it
• Pew Research Center Poll in 2009
• Newsweek 1987
– 99.86% US Earth & Life Scientists support evolution
• Nearly every scientific society, representing hundreds
of thousands of scientists, has issued official
statements in support of evolution (Kitzmiller v. Dover,
2005)
"So enormous, ramifying, and consistent has
the evidence for evolution become that if
anyone could now disprove it, I should have
my conception of the orderliness of the
universe so shaken as to lead me to doubt
even my own existence. If you like, then, I
will grant you that in an absolute sense
evolution is not a fact, or rather, that it is no
more a fact than that you are hearing or
reading these words.“
—1959, Hermann J. Muller
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1946 "for the discovery of the production of
mutations by means of X-ray irradiation"
Misconception #5: Teachers should
teach “both sides” of the evolution
issue and let students decide
• The Discovery Institute, a pro-intelligent design lobby group
in the US, claims that public schools should “teach the
controversy” because of the lack of public support for
evolution
• Intelligent Design (ID) is creationism in which…
– “Designer” substitutes for God
– “Design” substitutes for creation
• Creationism not pseudoscience, but is outside the realm of scientific
study
– Not testable & based on faith
– Intelligent design is pseudoscience because it presents religion
as being scientific
• Used in attempt to get creationism taught in science classes of public
schools
Kitzmiller v. Dover:
Decision of the Court
• “For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the
religious nature of ID would be readily apparent to an
objective observer, adult or child.”
• “The evidence at trial demonstrates that ID is nothing
less than the progeny of creationism.”
• “. . . it is additionally important to note that ID has
failed to gain acceptance in the scientific community, it
has not generated peer-reviewed publications, nor has
it been the subject of testing and research.”
• “. . . we find that while ID arguments may be true, a
proposition on which the Court takes no position, ID is
not science.”
• Lerner 2000, Good Science, Bad Science: Teaching Evolution in the
States
Misconception #6: Evolution and
religion are incompatible
• Biblical Inspiration
– The Bible is all human.
• Likely compatible
– The Bible is both human and divine.
• Likely compatible
– The Bible is all divine.
• Likely incompatible
If Bible is All Devine…Uh-oh!
• Slavery (Leviticus 25:39; Ephesians 6:5;
Colossians 3:22; Titus 2:9.
• Polygamy (Jacob, Leah and Rachel; King
David, King Solomon)
• Shellfish (Leviticus 11:10-12)
• Clothing of blended fibers (Leviticus
19:19)
Science informs our understanding
• You set the earth on its foundations, so that it
shall never be shaken (Psalm 104:5, NRSV).
• You have made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting (Psalm
104:19, NRSV).
Karl Giberson
• I find no compelling reason to
think that the central message of
Christianity is incompatible with
humanity’s kinship with the rest of
the animal world. In fact, this
continuity with the animal world
may place increasing theological
significance on the welfare of
animals and ecological
responsibility.
• --Saving Darwin
Dr. Francis S. Collins, Ph.D.
Darwin’s theory is so undergirded now by science that to
reject it is almost impossible if you’re really willing to look
at the evidence. That is a great threat to those who have
been taught, many of them from the time they first
entered Sunday school, that evolution is the enemy, and
that if you start accepting it in any way, you’ll go down a
slippery slope and end up losing your faith. I can cite
examples to the contrary, of young people who were in
that circumstance, saw the evidence for evolution, felt
that meant the end of their faith, but then encountered
this alternative view that evolution is just God’s method
of creation and found that to be a wonderful alternative
that they could embrace.
United Methodist Church
• “We find that science’s descriptions of
cosmological, geological, and biological
evolution are not in conflict with theology”
Pope John Paul II
• “With regard to other disciplines,
most of my contacts were with
physicists. In the course of our
many encounters, we would speak,
for example of the most recent
discoveries in cosmology. This was
a fascinating study, which
confirmed for me Saint Paul’s
dictum that certain knowledge of
God can also be reached through
knowledge of the created world (cf.
Rom. 1:20-23)”—(Rise Let Us be on
Our Way)
"'Humani Generis'," he stated, "considered
the doctrine of 'evolutionism' as a serious
hypothesis, worthy of a more deeply
studied investigation and reflection on a
par with the opposite hypothesis. ... Today,
more than a half century after this
encyclical, new knowledge leads us to
recognize in the theory of evolution more
than a hypothesis. ... The convergence,
neither sought nor induced, of results of
work done independently one from the
other, constitutes in itself a significant
argument in favor of this theory.“
--1996, Pope John Paul II
Union of Reform Judaism
• The Union of Reform Judaism resolves to:
• 6. Oppose government efforts and polices
that seek to redefine science or the scientific
method to incorporate religious, theological
or other theories, including “intelligent
design” and creationism, that are neither
testable by experiment nor observation.”
Pat Robertson, 2012
• “You go back in time, you’ve got radiocarbon
dating, you got all these things, and you’ve
got the carcasses of dinosaurs frozen in time
out in the Dakotas,” said Robertson Tuesday.
He continued, “There was a time when
these giant reptiles were on the earth and it
was before the time of the Bible. So, don’t
try and cover it up and make like everything
was 6,000 years.”
• “If you fight science, you’re going to lose
your children, and I believe in telling it the
way it was.”
E.O. Wilson
“There is a hereditary selective
advantage to membership in a
powerful group united by devout
belief and purpose. Even when
individuals subordinate
themselves and risk death in
common cause, their genes are
more likely to be transmitted to
the next generation than are
those of competing resolve.”
Gallup Poll 1997
“Nothing in biology makes sense
except in the light of evolution”
Theodosius Dobzhansky
“Seen in the light of evolution, biology is, perhaps,
intellectually the most satisfying and inspiring
science. Without that light it becomes a pile of
sundry facts some of them interesting or curious but
making no meaningful picture as a whole.”
“Does the evolutionary doctrine clash with religious
faith? It does not.”
http://www.2think.org/dobzhansky.shtml