Forum: ‘Origin’ should bring wonder, not fear
Athens Banner-Herald Published Tuesday, November 24, 2009

In the past 500 years, there have been many great ideas that have affected human society, yet two stand alone.

The first occurred in 1543 with the publication of “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres” by Nicolaus Copernicus. For many years this book, which challenged the accepted idea that the Earth was the center of the universe, was known mostly to scholars. It wasn’t until 1610, when Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei actively championed the idea of heliocentrism, that the average person began to consider the possibility that Earth, like all the other known planets, circled the sun, and together, our solar system is one of many on the outer edges of a great galaxy known as the Milky Way.

Galileo did so in the most elegant of ways, by having people use his telescope and see for themselves how Jupiter’s moons circled the great planet and then extending the concept to our own humble home.

Yet it would take another 75 years, nearly 150 years after Copernicus, for another great mind, Isaac Newton, to provide the final proof in the form of elegant and complex calculations.

Today represents the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.” Darwin’s theory of biological evolution rightly has been called the second of these transformative ideas. In its simplest form, the theory states that all life on Earth is connected by way of common ancestry and that over the millennia, natural selection acting on naturally occurring variation has yielded the wondrous display of biological diversity we see today.

Copernican heliocentrism and Darwinian evolution both met with considerable opposition, largely because they challenged us to reconsider mankind’s place in the universe. To many they represent a threat, for to accept either would be to acknowledge that we’d had it wrong for a very long time. The Earth is not the center of the universe and mankind is not the pinnacle of creation. The ideas were revolutionary, even frightening, and were met with an attitude of disbelief and deep suspicion.

Today, only one of these ideas continues to be rejected. Despite the overwhelming amount of supporting evidence produced by geologists, biologists, and others, a great many of us repeat the mantra that there is no “proof” of evolution.

I dare say that every person reading this essay has come to accept that the Earth orbits the sun, and that this knowledge does not diminish our self-worth. I’m equally certain that few among us, myself included, has ever taken the time to carefully observe the movement of the planets, record the measurements, and apply Newtonian calculus to actually prove this to ourselves. Others, who are more talented than we, have done so many, many times. And we accept their conclusions.

So it is with evolution. To accept Darwin’s idea is to acknowledge that we had it wrong. Yet embracing his theory frees us from the prison of ignorance. Like Copernicus, Darwin allows us to travel in space and time and see well beyond our own narrow perspective. Rather than challenging mankind’s place in the universe, these two ideas liberate and enable us to move on to an ever greater understanding of the universe and our place in it.

Through our genes we are connected to every living thing. Through our chemistry we are connected to the Earth. Through our very atoms we are connected to the stars and the universe.

Big ideas indeed, and ones that challenge us to consider our place in the cosmos. These are ideas that should be embraced, not rejected. Ideas that should fill us with wonder and joy, not fear.

• Mark Farmer of Winterville is a professor of cellular biology at the University of Georgia and a spokesman for Georgia Citizens for Integrity in Science Education.

Last year, over 10,000 clergy members signed a letter supporting the idea that religion and science are compatible ways of viewing the world.

As an offshoot of the effort, the First “Evolution Sunday” was held Feb 12, 2006, Darwin’s birthday, at churches throughout the nation. Some of the sermons have been made available online. On February 11, 2007 the 2nd annual Evolution Sunday will be held.

GCISE hopes that this information can be of use to those trying to reconcile or help friends reconcile their religious beliefs with modern scientific evidence. Despite what the creationists contend, millions of faithful Christians and members of other faiths have no problem accepting the evidence for evolution and do not feel it threatens their beliefs in any way!

Clips from the site:

“The Clergy Letter Project is an endeavor designed to demonstrate
that religion and science can be compatible and to elevate the quality of the debate of this issue.”

“On 12 February 2006 hundreds of Christian churches from all portions of the country and a host of denominations came together to discuss the compatibility of religion and science. For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between religion and modern science. More than 10,000 Christian clergy signed The Clergy Letter demonstrating that this is a false dichotomy. On the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, many of these leaders brought this message to their congregations through sermons and/or discussion groups. Together, participating religious leaders made the statement that religion and science are not adversaries. And, together, they elevated the quality of the national debate on this topic.”

Now a third year nuclear engineering student at Tech, I graduated from Marietta High School in 2003 — I’m really grateful, at this point, that I didn’t live a few miles away, in the Cobb district, because my science education got me to where I am now.

If the Cobb school board wants to make sure that students know that “evolution is a theory, not a fact” and that it should be “approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered” let them. But insist that they also know that gravity is only a theory. Relativity is only a theory (imagine – your commute at faster than light speeds!). Nuclear physics is based on theories – we don’t really know how an atom is shaped and held together, but that theory is strong enough to power some areas of Georgia and most of France, in addition to many other places. If every scientific theory must be prefaced by an explanation that it’s “only a theory”, the whole thing will very quickly be (correctly) labeled as absurd.

Anyway, I just wanted to throw in my two cents. This whole thing has gotten way out of hand and it does nothing to help the students. I hope the school board realizes this soon, and realizes that religion belongs in a religions/sociology course, the home, or the church, not the science classroom.

Emily Colvin

Secretary, Mars Society @ Georgia Tech
Nuclear and Radiological Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

[Editor Note: Send letters or questions to questions@georgiascience.org.]