In blogger Matt Walsh's post "Christianity has done more for science than atheism ever could," Walsh shows a demonstrable lack of knowledge regarding both science and religion. Walsh calls himself a "professional sayer of truths," but he's so ignorant of the topics he addresses he has no idea what the truth is.
Walsh's first glaring error is in the second sentence. He explains that the state of Kentucky has decided to implement the "Common Core" education standards, and states that "Progressives are celebrating this move." The facts: Common Core isn't progressive. Blogger Jack Hassard -- who has taught both high school and college science -- writes: "Any thought the standards movement is an idea hatched by progressives is without merit. Indeed, the idea of standards is a conservative idea..."
Walsh writes: "The criteria calls for a renewed emphasis on man-caused climate change and, of course, evolution. Evolution —- atheistic, nihilistic, materialistic, mindless evolution —- must be taught as fact, without other ideas presented to compete with the theory."
Billions of people believe evolution best explains the diversity of life on our planet. Walsh groups all those people together -- people from many different nationalities, cultures, and religions, including a majority of Christians -- and declares them all mindless nihilists. That's the very definition of prejudice. Walsh has an us-versus-them mentality and lumps everything he disagrees with into an evil Other, regardless of what the reality may be.
The facts: many scientists who study evolution are religious. Over fifty percent of Christians see evolution as one of the tools God used to create the universe as we know it. Through observation and experiment, scientists starting with Charles Darwin proposed evolution as the theory that best explains the facts that human beings observe about life on Earth. (Darwin was agnostic, not an atheist.) Walsh ridicules the theory that most educated people in the world have considered settled science for over a century, and insults anyone -- including fellow Christians -- who disagree with him. Walsh scoffs at the very people he claims to champion.
Walsh writes: "Our understanding of the universe deepened so profoundly during the Christian era because of the Christian tradition that brought a sense of order and rationality to the universe." Walsh is as ignorant of history as he is of science and religion. The facts: the idea that the universe is a rational place with physical laws that human beings can understand didn't originate with Christianity -- though millions of Christians agree with it. That idea was first proposed by ancient Greek philosophers.
Roger Bacon, a 13th century Catholic, was a father of the modern scientific method. Galileo, a father of modern astronomy, was also Catholic. But Walsh's claim that science has always flourished under Christianity is not historically accurate. The facts: Many Christians have advanced science, and many other Christians have tried to suppress it. For instance, the Roman emperor Justinian closed the Neoplatonic Academy of Athens -- a university dedicated to ancient Greek philosophy -- because he believed it threatened Christianity. Why? It was founded on the belief that the universe was orderly and rational.
The most famous Christian attempt to suppress scientific truth features Galileo. A pious Catholic, Galileo studied the skies and concluded that the Earth orbits the Sun. When he published his findings, the Inquisition arrested him and took him on a tour of a torture chamber. This is what we'll do to you, they told him, unless you publish a new document recanting your heresy and supporting the Christian position that the Sun orbits the Earth. Galileo had no choice but to agree with the Church's terms, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
Nearly four hundred years later, Pope John Paul II re-opened Galileo's case. The papal investigator, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, concluded that the Church's verdict had been "rational and just." In a widely hailed victory for facts over nonsense, John Paul II overrode Ratzinger and issued a statement conceding that the Church had been wrong.
When John Paul II passed away, the College of Cardinals elected Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI.
Walsh continues ignoring history when he writes "Christian civilizations advanced science immeasurably because they were Christian civilizations." The facts: Muslim mathematicians invented algebra when Christian Europe was in the Dark Ages. Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist of the Twentieth Century, was Jewish. Walsh claims Christianity is good for science, but mocks and disparages commonly accepted principles of biology, chemistry and physics, such as evolution and global warming.
Walsh continues: Evolution is "Such a silly superstition... human consciousness that develops accidentally out of lifeless material, order coming from chaos, rationality coming from irrationality, everything coming from nothing — has never done anyone any good, and it doesn’t belong inside a school." The facts: that's not how the theory of evolution works. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins once told an interviewer:
"I would not... say that we are here today as a matter of chance, because natural selection is not a chance process. Mutation is a matter of chance, but natural selection is a non-random force, because generations of genes have been non randomly chosen for reproduction and survival. If people think that Darwin said that life was down to chance, then no wonder they object to it."
Biologists do not believe that consciousness developed accidentally, and that is not what the theory of evolution proposes. According to evolution, life on Earth developed over billions of years, with complex forms of life arising through natural selection. In a nutshell, organisms better suited to life in their environment survive longer to have more offspring.
An example of evolution in action: in the 17th century, London fauna included many white-winged moths. Gray-winged moths were a small minority. As the industrial revolution spread, the air filled with ash. Soot covered roads, trees, and buildings. Suddenly the lighter-winged moths were easier to see when they landed on dirty surfaces -- and were eaten by birds. The gray-winged moths -- better suited for life in an industrial city -- survived. Today, most London moths are gray.
That's neither accidental nor irrational. If observing the universe, forming hypotheses, and testing them rigorously doesn't belong in schools, what does?
Walsh insists that public schools present "other ideas... to compete with the theory" of evolution. What other ideas are there? Here's a list compiled by blogger Morris M.
Walsh implies that public schools should teach the Bible as literal truth, even the parts that are meant metaphorically. The problem with teaching Walsh's personal religious beliefs in science classes -- instead of, you know, science -- is that his version of Christianity is not the only religion. Say the schools did teach creationism and dismissed evolution as "silly" and "mindless" as Walsh advocates. Would science teachers be forced to flunk students from Buddhist or Native American families where creationism is not part of their belief system? Would teachers fail students who believe that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old? Would teachers flunk students who observe the universe and test hypotheses?
If the public schools teach our children that science doesn't require observation in order to discover the facts, will they stop teaching astronomy as well? If science doesn't require proof, will they stop teaching geometry? If we start with the creationist conclusion and ignore any geological evidence that does not fit that conclusion, must teachers tell their students that carbon dating doesn't work?
It's not evolution we need to get out of schools. It's bigotry.