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The Vice President’s Intelligent Stand on Evolution

There need be no battle between faith and science.
evolution

Writing for the Daily Beast earlier this month, Clive Irving excoriated Vice President Mike Pence for his beliefs about evolution. “With Pence in the White House,” Irving warned, “it could be that control of the most scientifically advanced country in the world has now fallen into the hands of people to whom science is an enemy.”

Irving devotes considerable space to lauding Charles Darwin, author of the famous On the Origin of Species in 1859. He notes that Darwin was agnostic about a higher power but “was open-minded and prepared to concede to those like Kingsley (a contemporary clergyman) if they were not dogmatists and were comfortable that their own beliefs were not under threat—and recognized that science was an engine of social progress.” If only Irving himself held such charitable views toward religious people.

Irving is hardly alone in his contempt for the faithful, though, so it is instructive to examine his premise more closely. Do those holding to creation truly believe “science is an enemy”? The short answer is: no, they do not.

In 2009 President Obama selected Dr. Francis S. Collins as the director of the nation’s premier medical organization, the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The president said that “Dr. Collins is one of the top scientists in the world, and his groundbreaking work has changed the very ways we consider our health and examine disease.” Indeed, Collins is one of this generation’s most accomplished scientists, having made key discoveries in the field of human genome. He is also a strong and vocal Christian, believing that God is the author of all life.

Dr. Collins does not have the slightest discomfort with Charles Darwin’s theories and claims they do no harm to a deep and abiding belief in the Bible. In his book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Dr. Collins estimates the earth is billions of years old and notes how “overwhelming the scientific evidence for evolution is.” He writes that in his view, “evolution might have been God’s elegant plan for creating humankind. … From a biologist’s perspective, the evidence in favor of evolution is utterly compelling. Darwin’s theory of natural selection provides a fundamental framework for understanding the relationship of all living things.”

Collins is unapologetic, however, in diverging from Darwin when it comes to the power behind natural selection. In a 2006 interview he said that “science will tell me a lot about how things work. It will not tell me why we are all here, what the purpose is in life or what happens after we die.” Those questions, he said, are provided by the God of creation. He finds no contradiction in the nexus of science and faith; he is “able to draw upon both of those ways of knowing in order to have a full appreciation of the wonderful gift of life that we’ve been given.”

Which brings us back to Vice President Pence. Irving accused Pence of “intellectual cowardice” for his response to a 2009 question from Chris Matthews: whether he believed the earth was created in only seven days, as some Christians believe. Then a congressman representing Indiana, Pence acknowledged he didn’t know the means by which God created the world but emphasized that “I embrace the view that God created the heavens and the earth and the seas and all that’s in them.”

Pence’s views on creation and science are similar to those of Dr. Collins, though different in one respect. The vice president believes in “intelligent design.” Dr. Collins notes in his book that while some aspects of intelligent design “appear compelling,” it leaves too many questions unanswered and lacks sufficient scientific rigor. Dr. Collins’s book contains a chapter called “BioLogos” (the synthesis of life and the Word) that answers both scientific and faith questions.

Nevertheless, the vice president’s beliefs are no more anti-science than Dr. Collins’s. Both men accept that the scientific method provides valuable insights while emphasizing it cannot tell us all that is important.

There need be no battle between faith and science. Many Christians are hostile to those advocating a version of creation that leaves God out, and many like Irving are hostile toward believers who say creation was authored and controlled by God. Both should back off the vitriol.

We are both followers of Jesus Christ and firmly believe as Dr. Collins does that God created all that exists. Given that we believe in a God that powerful, we aren’t threatened by even ardent atheists who believe the opposite, recognizing that He is likewise not threatened one way or another by anything man believes. We also recognize, however, that many of these same atheistic scientists have contributed great things to our society and are thus grateful for them.

Those who, like Mr. Irving, believe we Christians are wrong should also recognize the incredible contributions to society and the benefit of man that many believers—like Dr. Collins—have made. Our nation will be strengthened when we realize the benefits inherent in agreeing to disagree on given issues while acknowledging the positive contributions our opponents make in other areas.

Daniel L. Davis is a senior fellow for Defense Priorities. Frances L. Garcia has a BS in Government and International Politics from George Mason and is pursuing a master’s of public administration and public policy from American University. The views in this article are those of the authors alone and do not reflect the opinions of Defense Priorities.

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