Science and the Bible by Bolton Davidheiser Chairman, Science Division Biola College
AN EPILOGUE TO THE SCOPES TRIAL?
questioned under oath, for actually he never had taught evolution. The author also repeats the oft-repeated statement that Darwin never said that man evolved from monkeys, al though Darwin did say just that— and he said it as plainly as he pos sibly could, as William Jennings Bryan pointed out at the trial. The author also makes the customary ob servation that the Sc ope s Trial killed “ the last serious opposition to the theory of evolution.” This chapter on the Scopes Trial is the usual presentation of that event, with one exception—but this one exception is indeed most inter esting and illuminating. The author says, “ There is a kind of epilogue to the Scopes Trial story. In 1959 there appeared a book called Evolution and Christian Thought Today, edited by Russell L. Mixter, professor of zool ogy at Wheaton College in Illinois. The book is a collection of essays by scientists who regard themselves as ‘conservative Christians.’ One of the contributors was George K. Schweit zer, associate professor of chemis try at the University of Tennessee. In his essay, Dr. Schweitzer wrote that the Biblical story o f creation was intended to tell us who created the universe, not how it was cre ated. Modern research, he said, has shown that the early chapters in Genesis should be interpreted ‘poet ically and allegorically,’ not literally. No one in Tennessee called for Dr. Schweitzer’s arrest.” The implication that Dr. Schweit zer could be arrested for writing this is another mistake, for although he teaches in Tennessee, he is free to write as he pleases about evolution and still be perfectly safe and im mune from arrest under the law. Ac cording to the law he may not teach evolution in the classroom. The re markable thing is that an evolution ist should express the opinion that a contributor to Evolution and Chris tian Thought Today presented in that book the evolutionist’s position so clearly that he could be eligible for arrest because the law under which Scopes was convicted is still on the books. Mr. Silverburg will feel no obli gation to apologize to Dr. Mixter.
I N 1959, the year of the Darwin .Centennial, the American Scien tific Affiliation pub l i shed a book called E v o lu tio n and C h r is tia n Thought Today, edited by Russell L. Mixter of Wheaton College. The pa per jacket of the book states that “ the authors hold the evangelical be lief that the world and its members are the result of the activity of God as declared in the Holy Scriptures. This timely volume has been written e s p e c i a l l y for students, and for Christian leaders who must deal with the spiritual problems and in tellectual difficulties of those engaged in the study of natural science as well as the science of theology.” The present writer reviewed the book unfavorably, on the grounds that it teaches evolution. Some time after this a former president of the A.S.A. asked, “Why did you review the book unfavorably ?” To the reply that the reason was that the book implies evolution, he became quite indignant and said, “We are crea tionists, not evolutionists!” A Christian missionary expressed the opinion that the present writer ought to apologize to Dr. Mixter for writing an unfavorable review of the book. While engaged in writing a reply to explain to this missionary why an apology was not in order, there was a knock on the door of my office. A student was seeking help and advice. He said that his mission ary parents were concerned and dis tressed because his brother was pro fessing evolutionary views as a re sult of being under the instruction of the editor of the book. One of the most recent books on human ev o lu t i on is Man Before Adam, by Robert Silverburg. It is a popular book written for the gen eral public, and it has the usual er rors to be found in a work of this type. In a chapter on the famous Scopes Trial of 1925, Silverburg says that Scopes was persuaded to teach evolution and thus break the law so that the issue could be brought to trial. The fact is that Scopes agreed to admit that he already had broken the law. Accord ing to a newspaper reporter, Scopes later admitted that he was scared throughout the trial that he might be
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