神創/智慧設計與進化論之爭的由來 The history of creationism and evolution conflict

引言

神創/智慧設計﹐不僅是150年前達爾文發表“物種起源”的延續。它有自己的獨特文化背景。

神創/智慧設計兩個學說產生的背景﹐並不是出於對科研的興趣﹐而是西方﹐特別是美國從教會主導的文化氛圍轉化為世俗社會﹑理性與科學出現質疑教會傳統而出現的衝突。

西方神權統治的背景

科學和宗教衝突自西方啟蒙時代開始已經爭鬧不休。西方中世紀教會擁有極大的權力﹐政教是合一的。教會和皇權操控社會一切活動和個人生活細節。學術研究更加不能夠逾越教會正統信仰的教導。基督教教會﹐包括天主教﹐和宗教改革產生的宗派﹐相信人是神按神形象創造﹐人在一切創造物是至為尊貴的﹐因此所有對自然現象的理解﹐當時的人都是按照聖經的教導理解﹐教會傳統教導是無誤的﹐上至天文﹑下至地理生物﹐都是教會權威話事﹐不可以挑戰。學術的責任是發展知識服務教會﹑去支持教會和聖經無誤的教導。

文藝復興﹑啟蒙時代打破教會壟斷學術

西方啟蒙思想一起﹐那些中世紀﹑基於信仰觀點而不是客觀事實的教導就一一的受到挑戰﹐開始了科學和宗教數百年的爭論﹕

• • 哥白尼 (Copernicus) 發表日心論 (Heliocentric Theory)﹐直接地挑戰了教會權威教導﹐人類是宇宙中心的說法

  • 加利略在歐洲首先開創了通過驗證﹑找尋經驗證據去檢驗學說是否成立的做法 - 他用試驗量度物體下墮的速度﹐推翻教會說物件越重下墮的速度越快的說法 (這試驗據說是在比薩斜塔進行的) - 用試驗驗證教會學說當時是離經叛道的行為﹐因為那等同挑戰神﹑試探神

此後﹐西方啟蒙時代和理性主義摧化科學發展﹐達爾文年輕時候隨著皇家帆船“小獵犬”號環遊世界﹐看到了他同時代歐洲和英國人從來沒有看見過的珍禽異獸和化石。地質的研究當時已經質疑了聖經對地球年齡的計算。

但同時候﹐宗教改革把聖經權威提昇﹐原本掙脫教會傳統的捆綁﹐後來聖經被提昇為唯一權威﹐成為聖經直解主義 (Literalism)的基礎。

進化論對教會信仰的衝擊

達爾文沉澱了他數年在海外的研究﹐和仔細的觀測自然﹐終於發表了他後來戲稱“我的小小異端邪說”(my little heresy) 的“物種起源”和“人類進化”﹐觸動西方基督教文化最根深蒂固﹑最敏感的神經﹕人不是與眾不同的萬物之靈﹐而是和所有生物一樣有共同祖先﹐而自然的過程產生了所有生物﹐而人也是這個過程﹑從一些古代猿猴演化而來。

這個衝擊引發百多年的爭議﹐但歐洲因為受過神權政治的苦頭﹐比其他地方更加積極去擺脫神權思維﹑擁抱理性主義。

美國文化獨特如何產生神創/智慧設計運動

相反﹐美國的文化就走了不一樣的軌道。美國獨立前是殖民地﹐很多歐洲清教徒逃避歐洲國家教會壓迫﹐在美國建立新家園。美國的基督教就和歐洲分開﹐有了自己的發展。美國既面對歐洲很多移民衝擊﹑北方工業化而南方農業需要黑奴﹐南北戰爭等﹐都造成社會不安﹐於是出現所謂敬虔主義﹑復興主義﹐強調回到聖經根本﹐於是慢慢從唯獨聖經發展為聖經直解主義 (Literalism)﹐也是神創論的基礎。

美國的立國元老不是熱烈或非常虔誠的信徒﹐都是人文主義者﹑開放的有神論者﹐他們有見歐洲政教合一的禍害﹐在憲法寫上政教分離的條文。但在平民層次﹐基督教影響仍然非常根深蒂固。

十九到二十世紀﹐面對自由派神學的衝擊﹐開始質疑聖經的原文和裡面的奇跡﹐例如創造﹑童女生子﹑復活﹐保守的基督教徒在美國就發起基要主義﹐(Fundamentalism)﹐出版了The Fundamentals﹐強調聖經無誤﹑聖經直解﹐他們對學術﹑科學﹑理性非常猜疑。這種對學術﹑科學的敵意﹑猜疑﹐影響了很多人﹐特別美國當時仍然是基督教非常普及和是美國文化一部分的時代﹐這影響絕對不可輕視。

神創論/智慧設計﹐就是自美國1920年代基要主義下產生的﹐而且根據他們所謂聖經無誤的觀點﹐進化論自然是和聖經矛盾﹐因此到現在﹐最激烈反對進化論很多都有基要主義背景。

他們認為進化論否定神的創造和貶低人為動物﹐於是極力阻止學校教導進化論﹐最後產生一個抗衡進化﹑科學物質主義的運動﹐以下是一個簡單時序﹕

• • 1922 - 1968 ﹕透過仍然是抱保守信仰觀點信徒控制的地方立法機構﹐立法禁止在任何學校教導進化論。這是宗教霸權最橫行的時代

  • 1969 - 1987﹕1969年美國最高法院根據憲法政教分離條文﹐裁定在公立學校不可以講聖經創世記和神創信仰後﹐把聖經創世記和神創信仰改頭換面為“創造科學”﹐或稱神創論 (Creation Science, Creationism)

  • 1987 - 2005﹕1987年美國最高法院裁定“創造科學”﹐或稱神創論學說是宗教觀點﹐違反憲法﹐之後同一意識形態的人﹐把“創造科學”/ 神創論再改頭換面為“智慧設計”

  • 2005 - 今﹕2005年12月﹐美國賓夕法尼亞州多佛鎮學校委員會推廣“智慧設計”被裁定是宗教觀點﹐違反憲法。於是神創/智慧設計陣營再次變陣﹑改頭換面

1922 - 1968﹕透過公權的渠道﹐阻止進化論教育

在1920年代的氛圍﹐有其時代的背景﹐就是基督教保守的基要主義和當時理性主義思潮的衝突。

美國首先那時候出現了基要主義﹐而保守信徒對科學﹑新思維也非常抗拒﹐認為這些思想反聖經﹑最終必定導致人類道德淪喪。

1925年﹐美國南部保守派基督教控制的州份﹐發生了Scope's Trial ﹐老師因為教導進化論被判有罪。後來美國20個州通過了法律禁止學校教導進化論﹐用的是宗教理由去阻止科學討論。在這種壓抑的氣氛下﹐美國超過三十年﹐很多學校都沒有好好教導進化論﹐而反而受到教會影響。

這種壓迫的政治氛圍下﹐出版商多不敢在生物學教科書講進化論。

1968 - 1987﹕失去公權力後改頭換面偽裝為科學

30年後﹐由於美國在太空探索落後於蘇聯﹐蘇聯搶先發射第一枚人造衛星和送了第一個太空人加加林上太空。

當時東西方冷戰﹐美國北約組織與蘇聯領導的華沙公約組織抗衡﹐進行軍事和科學競賽。美國不甘落後﹐於是當時甘迺迪總統立下遠大目標要在1960年代完結前﹐送人類上月球﹐展開了阿波羅登月計劃。

這個計劃必須有強大科學研究基礎﹐於是科學教育就得到前所未有的重視﹐全國上下積極進行科學教育﹐被冰封三十多年的進化論開始被重新放入教科書。

這時候美國基督教基要主義信徒不甘示弱﹐也發動訴訟爭取在課堂教導聖經創世記。而60年代末﹐美國法院判決學校禁止教導進化論是違反憲法。

失去阻止進化論教育法律手段﹐於是﹐基督教基要主義信徒要再想辦法繞過憲法的限制﹐就催生了 Creation Science (創造科學)。

創造科學其實是基要主義﹑聖經直解主義的重新包裝。他們就是後來所謂的 Young Earth Creationists (YEC﹐地球年輕創造論者)。有些採取比較寬鬆的聖經解釋﹐稱為 Old Earth Creationist﹐他們接受地球是超過四十億年的地質歷史﹐把六日解釋為地質年和象征意義等。部份人相信某程度演化 (micro-evolution)﹐但不相信會出現新物種。

當時的代表作包括﹕

• • The Genesis Flood (Henry Morris)

  • Creation as Science (Hugh Ross)

最開明的叫 Evolutionary Creationism﹐他們其實接納進化論﹐認為神使用進化帶來地球千萬重不同生物。

有些自稱 Progressive Creationism﹐接納宇宙大爆炸論﹑化石證據﹑地質證據﹐差不多全盤接納科學有的觀點﹐只是認為神創造了宇宙的定理。

他們到處抹黑進化論是一個導致道德淪亡的理論﹐為了保護道德﹐課堂應該用神創說平衡﹐以體現美國是一個基督教國家。

1987 - 2005 ﹕採取更加精巧包裝﹐扮成高檔科學

1987年﹐神創論在美國法院再次遭遇打擊。究其原因﹐因為他們基本上是採取聖經直解法和 YEC的論點﹐結果整個神創運動受到牽連。

智慧設計採取更加低調﹑更加看來不具侵犯性的手法﹐而且盡量淡化他們學說的宗教色彩﹕

• • 不提神

  • 不提創造﹑創世

他們不再爭取禁止進化論﹐而是爭取“相同時間” (Equal time)。而他們也利用微生物學家﹑數學家來推廣﹐增加它的學術色彩﹐完全掩蓋了原本來自神創的濃重宗教色彩。

這個運動開始得到支持﹐主要是詹腓力出版的“審判達爾文”(Darwin on Trial)﹑成立 The Discovery Institute ﹑The Center for Renewal of Science and Cultture後﹐運動有更強組織性。

他們會強調這不是宗教觀點﹐而是“科學觀點”。他們又得到一些科學家作為前鋒﹐包括﹕

• • Michael Behe : Darwin's Black Box

  • Jonathan Wells: The Icons of Evolution

  • William Dembski : The Design Inference

而這時候他們陣營運動的動機也曝光﹕一份The Discovery Institute "The Wedge Document"﹐描述了他們的目標﹕

• • 推翻科學物質主義在政治﹑道德﹑文化帶來的“破壞”

  • 用神觀的認知﹑概念取代一切科學物質主義﹐並且確立人是神創造的

可見﹐這個運動的骨子裡面﹐是一個文化社會運動。

National Center for Science Education 的總監 Eugenie Scott 說﹕智慧設計運動目的﹐是從新令美國社會“基督教化”﹐全國的意識形態﹑生活都在他們 (智慧設計運動)的信仰價值控制。(Re-Christianize the American Society and to have all aspects of life governed by their religious preference).

2004年美國賓夕法尼亞州多佛鎮學校委員會一些過份積極的神創論者過份高調推廣智慧設計﹐觸發了訴訟。他們聲稱智慧設計已經是科學理論﹐可以教導。

這個過份急進的步伐加速暴露了智慧設計的缺陷﹐在審訊中來自智慧設計陣營的科學家自暴其醜。

2005年12月﹐法院裁定就算學校委員會不是在課堂教導智慧設計﹐僅僅是在生物堂上念那段一分鐘聲明提及智慧設計﹐原來都觸犯美國政教分離憲法。(Kitzmiller Vs Dover)

這次訴訟結果﹐導致很多原本想推廣智慧設計的州分延遲推行。

2005 - 今﹕後智慧設計

Kitzmiller Vs Dover案件後﹐神創/智慧設計陣營未能夠再次改頭換面﹐因為無論怎樣做﹐如果放上法庭﹐他們無可避免地要暴露底牌﹐被揭露是宗教觀點。因此他們把所有精力用在不斷對進化論提出攻擊和質疑這種“反題”之上。

他們會繼續避開科學的嚴格審閱﹐避開任何法律上的風險﹐集中精力在文宣﹑公關活動推廣“進化論有危機”﹑“進化論導致道德淪喪”這些論述上。

因此美國關注進化論﹑希望維護科學的人相信﹐將來的戰場是公關﹑傳媒﹐而不是法院﹐更加不是學術圈子。他們都呼籲科學家走出他們的象牙塔﹐努力想大眾推廣科學教育﹐並且改善傳媒報導科學發展新知的質素﹐提升公眾對科學的認知。

最新一期 Pew Research Center與美國American Association for the Advancement of Science合作進行的民意調查顯示﹐雖然美國百分之九十七的科學家表示人類和其他生物都是進化而來﹐但公眾比率是百分之六十一。這比起2005年的百分之四十一雖然是一個很好的增長﹐但仍然有百分之三十一反對人類和其他生物都是進化而來。

目前最重要還是向公眾推廣更加優質的科學教育。

Introduction

The conflict between evolution and Intelligent Design/Creationism (IDC) is not merely the continuation since 150 years ago when Charles Darwin first published his book "The Origin of Species".

The war on evolution is a culimnation of the cultural interplay between power, politics, religion that kept the cultural war alive.

IDC is not a product from scientific inquiry. In the Western civilization and especially USA, it is the long struggle to wean the culture from dominance of the Christian belief into a secular and enlightened culture.

The Church's influence

Conflict between religion and science is nothing new. Prior to the Enlightenment, the Church had a tight grip on intellectual pursuit apart from almost any aspect of life (there's no such thing as personal freedom in those time).

Intellectual pursuit, inquiry to the natural world had to operate within the framework of what the Church taught. Whether it is the Catholic Church, or those Protestant denominations that spawned after the Reformation, they all agreed on one thing - man is created in the image of God, and thus is the most precious and prestige in all creation. This notion of Creation and man being the crowning jewel dominated the understanding of nature at the time, you just could not go beyond the bounds, the Church was infallible from astronomy, geography, chemistry and every knowledge. As Christians (you CANNOT be a non-Christian then) the duty was to submit to the Church's teaching, and pursue knowledge to CONFIRM the Church's infallibility.

Reformation, enlightenment and scientific revolution

The Enlightenment set off a process that eventually triggerred one challenge to the Church's dogma after another, and as scientific inquiry progress, the quarrel between religion and science accompanied it:

• • Nicholas Copernicus' Heliocentric Theory dealt the first blow to the Church dogma that the earth (thus mankind) is at the center of the Universe

  • Galileo opened up the floodgates to allow more and more challenges to dogmas of the Church - he pioneered experimentation to "test" validity of accepted explanations (taught by the Church); in one exercise it was said he measured velocity of falling objects from the Tower of Pizza - that was considered heresy for it meant people would no longer submit to the Church's authority unquestioningly

The scientific revolution was virutally unstoppable, and when Darwin sailed round the world on "The Beagle", he saw all kinds of exotic animals that none of his contemporaries could imagine, he saw fossils which clearly indicate the age of Earth far exceeded 6000 years.

Yet during the Reformation, the reformers took the Bible out in defiance to the Church's authority and coined "Sola Scriptura", i.e. only the Bible is the authority in matters of faith, which sowed the seed of Biblical Literalism).

Darwin's impact to the Christian faith

Darwin's published his works after he gave deep consideration and studying the specimens he collected. That tugged the most sensitive nerve of the Christian culture: no longer man is unique, different and the jewel of all Creation. Man shared a common ancestor with apes and all creatures, and natural process, not God, the produces all the species.

The worldview based on faith and religion was abruptly challenged by a naturalistic and evidence-based worldview, and started off the cultural war against evolution.

Western Europe who suffered a lot from the Church dominance and religious wars, was more eager to break away from the faith-based worldview and embrace free thinking and reason. USA did not walk this path.

USA's own culture make IDC movment thrive

Prior to its Independence, USA being a colony had many immigrants, mainly Protestants that wanted to escape from the state church in Europe. Thus the development of Christian-based culture took a different path.

USA experienced a lot of stress and conflict whilst it went through a lot of changes, industrializaton, liberation of the slaves, the influx of Catholics and Jews that threatined their Protestant state. The Revivalism, the Methodists movement and other Protestant movements started to call people to "return to the word of God", and it fueled Biblical Literalism, which spawned Creationism.

From 19th to 20th Century, scholastic study on the Bible (e.g. Higher Criticism) challenged a lot of the tenets of Christian faith and began to doubt the supernatural events in the Bible (the Flood, Virgin Birth, Resurrection). Those pastors and Christian leaders saw this as a threat to their worldview and way of living, and a threat to Christendom, published a 5 volume bookset called "The Fundamentals", which affirmed Bible Inerrancy, Salvation, Sin, Atonement etc. and of course they believed in a literal reading of Genesis, the pre-Creationism view. The Fundamentalist Christian were suspicious and sometimes hostile to intellectual pursuit, and had deep distrust towards science and reasoning.

These viewpoints influenced many USA people and affected how the public view evolution.

Those who opposes evolution see evolution as denying the divine creation of man, downgraded human to animals, and thus they do all they can to stop the teaching of evolution, and it resulted in a cultural movement which targeted evolution and even science as a whole. The following is a very simplifed timeline of how modern Creationism/Intelligent Design movement "evolved":

• • Efforts to ban the teaching of evolution (1922–1968)

  • The rise and fall of "creation science" (1969–1987)

  • The rise and fall of "intelligent design" creationism (1987–2005)

  • Stealth creationism (2005–present)

1922 - 1968: try to make use of legal means to ban teaching of evolution

With the conflict of modernism, Liberal Christianity and Fundamentalist Christianity as the backdrop, there was a growing suspicision and hostility to evolution.

1925 John Scopes, a teacher in Tennessee defied the state law which prohibited the teaching of evolution. Scopes was found guilty, the verdict sent a chill all over USA, and publishers took evolution away from biology textbook. 20 states enacted laws to prohibit teaching of evolution.

Evolution disappeared from high school for a whole generation.

1968 - 1987: Creationism was born when legal means could not work

The Cold War, plus the space exploration initiatives of Soviet Union caused a national will to try and win the arms race, the space exploration and that required robust science education.

Science education became top priority as Present J.F. Kennedy plegded to land a man on the moon and return safely to earth.

With the emphasis of science education, textbooks were greatly improved, and evolution found its way back into textbooks and science class.

However in 1968, the USA Supreme Court invalidated a 1928 Arkansas statute that prohibited the teaching of evolution. The Court held the statute to be an unconstitutional attempt to advance a particular religious viewpoint (Epperson V. Arkansas).

Having lost their legal weapons, they re-branded their literal reading of Genesis, and "Creation Science" (Creationism) was born.

There were a wide variety of Creationism such as Young Earth Creationism, Old Earth Creationism but all rejected speciation in evolution.

Representative figure included Henry Morris (The Genesis Flood) and Hugh Ross (Creation as Science).

1987 - 2005 : Creationism became more sophisticated, dressed and acted like science

Creationism was dealt a fatal blow at the Edward Vs. Aguillard case. The Supreme Court ruled that Creation Science (Creationism) is a religous viewpoint and thus unconstitutional to be taught in public schools.

Seeing the reference of Bible, God, Creation/Creator would attract challenges in court, Creationists scramble to remove them all and remerged as Intelligent Design.

They adopted an apparently modest stance, avoid any mention of the Bible/God, and distanced themselves from the Bible thumping preachers.

They stopped advocating to stop teaching evolution, but launched public relationship campaign to sell the idea to the public, school board members and local legislators.

Philip Johnson published the book "Darwin on Trial" which propelled the motion. The Discovery Institute and Center for Renewal of Science and Cultture was founded, given the movement the organization, the strategy and the sophisticated look.

Scientists were enlisted as their leading voices:

Michael Behe : Darwin's Black Box

Jonathan Wells: The Icons of Evolution

William Dembski : The Design Inference

The movement's intention was expressed in The Wedge, an internal document of the Discovery Institute, was exposed. The goals of the Intelligent Design movement is as follows:

• • To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies.

  • To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and hurnan beings are created by God.

There is no doubt that the Intelligent Design movement is a cultural movement.

Eugenie Scott, the Director of the National Center for Science Education (USA) said: the goal of Intelligent Design is to "Re-Christianize the American Society and to have all aspects of life governed by their religious preference".

In 2004, several members of the school board of the Dover Area School District tried to introduce Intelligent Design into the 9th Grade class of the Dover Area High School. 11 parents and citizens sued the school board.

The school board members who advocated Intelligent Design claimed Intelligent Design is a scientific theory that can be taught alongside with evolution.

The Dover school board's overly zealous way to push Intelligent Design to public schools inadverdently speeded up its demise: all of the Intelligent Design's flaws were brutally exposed in the trial. The scientists that represented the Intelligent Design movement emerged with damaged reputation.

December 2005, the court ruled that even the reading of a one-minute statement to tell student that there is "Intelligent Design" is unconstitutional, to add to the damage, the detailed court opinion also ruled that Intelligent Design is not science.

This ruling caused other school districts to delay and reconsider whether they would try to introduce intelligent design.

2005 - present: post-Kitzmiller, Intelligent Design fly in stealth mode

With Kitzmiller Vs Dover case leaving the Intelligent Design "theory" in shambles, the movement proponent has yet to come up with its "next version".

Meanwhile they focus their energy to try and poke holes in evolution, manufacture "doubts", try to bad-mouth evolution as the cause of "moral degeneration".

They will certainly never engage in genuine scientific enquiry, but will try and avoid legal challenge, and put their efforts in public relationship campaign.

People were concerned with science education are gradually realizing that this is not about science but about publicity, promotion and media. People are calling scientists to come forward and speak up, promote science to the public, and improve how media report advances in science, thus improve the public awareness and knowledge in general.

The latests poll by the Pew Research Center and Association for the Advancement of Science showed the gap between the public and the scientific community: 97% of scientists acknowleged that human and other living organisms arised from evolution, but just 61% say the same thing. Though it is up from 41% of similar polls, there are still 31% that opposed evolution.

The focus in future is public awareness and improving our science education.