Niles Eldredge - The Darwin Blogs

The Darwin Blogs – February 19, 2007.

Mr. Darwin in the Chat Room—and Some Wonderful News!

Back from the Galapagos—a richly rewarding adventure in the most fabled of Darwin's stops while he was on the Beagle. The company was wonderful: bright, engaged passengers, my wife Michelle (my editor and soul mate), great naturalists, my fellow lecturer (David Kohn—my colleague in unraveling the intellectual side of the story of Darwin's adventures on the Beagle). And, amazingly enough, Charles Robert Darwin himself—who shared in our journey vicariously through the modern miracle of the internet—which failed us only once, when our ship was anchored inside a volcanic crater!

I hadn't heard from Mr. Darwin since we returned—until yesterday, when I found myself checking emails, and a short note from Darwin popped up. This was the first time I was sitting there when an internet ether Darwinian message appeared—and I wrote right back—keeping my reply brief in the hopes of catching his attention. It worked—and the following conversation—with all the earmarks of a "chat room" experience—took place:

February 17, 2007

My Dear Eldredge:

I trust that you and Mrs. Eldredge have by now safely returned from your Galapagos voyage. (Upon reflection, I realise that travel these days is measured in hours—not days or weeks! Of Course you shall have arrived back at home by now!).

I had intended to write some further thoughts on the subject of the Galapagos, but (as you know from previous experience) I have discovered how to experience the New York Times via its "website"—without the inconvenience (nay, impossibility!) of my having to pay its otherwise obligatory subscription fee!

Once again I am consterned by an article that appears in today's edition—and I hastily write in hopes of gaining some understanding of this most peculiar piece of news.

It seems that a legislator in a place called "Texas" (which I seem to recall as, briefly, a separate nation state in your early history—but now I gather long since one of the United States), without paying much heed to what he was doing, circulated a memorandum from the desk of another legislator from another state (Georgia, I believe it was said to have been).

The purport of this memorandum—which I am given to understand has caused a great hue and cry of outrage—is that evolution is NOT, after all, a scientific theory!!! It is (i.e. according to this memorandum) rather to be construed as a religious idea!!!

Moreover—and here I shall desist from writing more in the hopes that you can enlighten me as soon as conveniently possible—the Source of this "religious" idea (i.e. evolution) is said to be the Jews—through something called the "Big Bang" theory (which I had understood to be a modern theory of the origin of the cosmos—not the evolution of life on earth!!). Yet it was the book of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Pentateuch, which was the very source of the Creation myth—i.e. of a young earth, with separately created, eternally unchanging species—that was held by everyone in my day to be in opposition to My theory of transmutation—which is to say "evolution."

This is most puzzling. Am I correct that it makes no sense whatever?

With hopes of an early response,

I remain faithfully yours,

C. Darwin

Of course I hit the reply button immediately, writing:

Dear Charles Darwin:

As in your time, so in ours, it is the Christians who are most exercised over evolution—though I hasten to add, not all Christians. Nor is it only Christians who oppose evolution: I have encountered some Jews who dislike evolution on religious grounds (as well as some Catholics—for most of the Christian opposition has come from conservative Protestants); and I have heard of some conservative Muslims who also reject evolution.

You probably remember from your youth how the Jewish people fared in a European world dominated by Christians. And perhaps you have since come to learn of the Holocaust, when the genocidal policies of Hitler's Germany took the lives of some six million people—most of them Jews. Many Christians still hold a decidedly ambivalent view of Jews and the Jewish religion—at times adamantly supporting the modern State of Israel (for it is in the Holy Land—and the Jewish people share a closer religious heritage, it is said, with Christians than either do with Muslims; and Jesus, after all, was himself a Jew). On the other hand, they hold the Jewish establishment of Roman-occupied Jerusalem responsible for Jesus' death.

It has become commonplace in some Christian circles to blame much of the perceived ills of the world on "Jewish conspiracies." That is what you have come across here: supposed alternate Jewish mystical texts are alleged to have put forward a sort of cosmic theory of change—hence the "Big Bang,"—and hence, by implication, any theory of change—most especially "evolution."

The Times story reported that the memorandum circulated by the Texas legislator referred readers to a website (www.fixedearth.com) which the Times article said features "items belittling the Holocaust and portraying Earth as stationary as depicted in the Bible." They further quote the website as referring to "Jewish thinkers like the 'Kabbalist physicist Albert Einstein' [as being] responsible for contrary scientific theories."

I have not had the opportunity to check the website—but I trust the Times reporter on this. Let me just say that Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientists who ever lived—a man who wrote a more general theory of the universe than any of his predecessors, subsuming the work of the great Newton and others. You, Sir, are in very good company!

The Holocaust happened; Albert Einstein was a great scientist—a man with an open dialogue with the universe—not someone imbued with secret religious texts who managed to pull the wool over the eyes of his fellow physicists. Among his many achievements was the realization, embodied in a disarmingly simple formula, that huge amounts of energy are locked up within each and every atom. That great mischief—tragedy, really—has been part of the legacy of that formula is something we have to blame on ourselves—and not on this wonderful thinker.

Hope that this answers your question—you are in great company with the likes of Albert Einstein. But then again, I always thought you were in that very same company!

Niles

Darwin immediately shot back a follow-up email:

Many thanks, my dear Eldredge. Of course you are right—Jews were routinely caricatured and pilloried back in my time—and in Shakespeare's time before me! 'Twas ever thus ever since there was a Christendom!

But my puzzlement remains: how can evolution be construed as "religious"? My entire career was devoted to establishing the scientific basis for transmutation—and, once again, may I say that I was keenly aware that my views were contrary to the religious views on Creation commonly held by my Christian countrymen—derived as they were from the original Hebraic testimentary writings!!

C. Darwin

To which I replied:

Dear Charles Darwin—I should also have said that the resistance to evolution, coming as it invariably does from Judaeo-Christian religious quarters—always amounts to a denial of scientific fact—whether it is a matter of the age of the earth, the origin of variation, natural selection or the origin of species. But the specifics of the charge may vary: I have seen all of the following combinations: (1) religion is inherently right, therefore science, whatever it says, is by definition wrong; or (2) the creation story is science, and equally valid as secular science (this is the position of so-called "scientific creationism" of the 1970s, as well as of today's "intelligent design"); or, (3) yes, the creationist account is based on religion—but so is "evolution," as practiced today by secular, materialist scientists, also a form of religion—with its tenets held on faith, not evidence.

What is new (at least to me) in yesterday's reports of the shenanigans of the Georgia and Texas legislators is the charge that evolution is a religious tenet, one going back thousands of years, and is Jewish in origin. That is a new one on me! It smacks of the same sort of illiterate stupidity that characterized creationism in the early decades of the twentieth century in America. The idea that science in general—and especially, evolutionary biology and allied fields—are themselves religions, or at least religious in character, is a more recent idea—and a more sophisticated (though of course still quite erroneous) one. Perhaps we should take up this latter subject later in some further correspondence—in another Blog.

Darwin ended the exchange by simply saying:

Thank you, Eldredge, for your clarification of what still remains to me a rather incomprehensible state of affairs—where science and religion, once so clearly to be distinguished, one from the other, (at least in my day—but I rather supposed in your day as well??) have been so confounded that one does not know what is up and what is down! Why does the World insist upon making relatively simple and straightforward matters so downright murky? Has the entire World gone mad?

C. Darwin

I decided to leave it at that—and to tackle "science as secular religion" some other time. I don't think the world has gone any more mad today than it already was in Darwin's time—but then again, I could be wrong about that.

AND NOW FOR SOME WONDERFUL NEWS!!!

My son Gregory Eldredge and I have just announced that we have teamed up to become co-editors of an important new journal: OUTREACH AND EDUCATION IN EVOLUTION. Greg is a Special Education teacher in science at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, New York.

Our new journal will publish peer-reviewed articles in evolutionary science and in the teaching of evolution (and all related topics—such as plate tectonics—the earth is NOT "stationary" as the memo discussed above would have it!). We will include curriculum materials (including lesson plans), news columns, reviews, letters and much more, along with the feature articles.

Originally scheduled to appear in March 2008, response to our press release (reprinted immediately below) has been so great that we have decided to move the appearance of Vol. 1, No. 1 up to September 2007. Look for our website soon to appear at Springer.com (Springer, the well-known science publishing firm, is our publisher!). Have an article, opinion, letter—anything? Drop us a line at that website (I'll be sure to list the URL in these blog pages as soon as it is available!). And look for an article about us and the new journal in this week's (i.e. Friday, February 23rd) issue of Science.

Be sure also to download my latest paper, co-authored with Ilya Temkin, on the evolution of material cultural objects—now included in my "Library of Evolution" page of this website!

And now—here is our Press Release announcing OUTREACH AND EDUCATION IN EVOLUTION:

PRESS RELEASE

Fighting to keep Darwin in the classroom

New journal Outreach and Education in Evolution will arm educators for battle with creationists

Heidelberg / New York, 12 February 2007

Nearly a century ago, John Scopes was found guilty of violating a Tennessee statute when he taught evolution in his classroom. Though an appeals court later reversed his conviction on a technicality, the law lingered on the books, joined by later laws promoting “scientific creationism,” and, most recently, “intelligent design.” The battle to keep religiously based explanations of the history of life—especially human life—out of the science curriculum continues unabated. And though a number of educational institutions and organizations have had notable success in combating intelligent design in the classroom, what is needed now is a fresh source of evolution materials and anticreationism ammunition for our school teachers on the front lines of this ongoing battle. Today, on Darwin’s 198th birthday, Springer announces plans for a new journal which will do just that.

A father-and-son team—a world-renowned evolutionary biologist and a highly skilled and sophisticated science high school teacher—have decided it’s time to help science educators fight back against the strong pressure creationists are exerting on public education. In the new journal Outreach and Education in Evolution, to be published by Springer starting in March 2008, editors-in-chief Niles and Greg Eldredge intend to fill the gap between scientific literature and curriculum materials normally available to educators and students.

Niles Eldredge has been a paleontologist on the curatorial staff of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) since 1969. His theory of “punctuated equilibria” (co-authored with Stephen Jay Gould) is a milestone in contemporary evolutionary biology. He has combated the creationist movement through lectures, articles and books and is the curator responsible for the content of the major exhibition Darwin which opened at the AMNH in New York in November 2005, drawing in over 500,000 visitors. Greg Eldredge has a Masters Degree in Education and has been a New York City school teacher for the past three years. He is a co-author of the children’s book The Fossil Factory. The two are supported by an international editorial board, made up of some of the most renowned scientists in the field.

Niles and Greg Eldredge are in agreement: “Evolution remains the central unifying idea in biology and yet is still a source of contention and confusion in the classroom. In Outreach and Education in Evolution, we’ll cover the gamut, from molecules to ecosystems and from ‘intelligent design’ to natural selection. We aim to make a big difference in evolutionary education.”

Amelia McNamara, Vice President, Publishing, Life Sciences and Biomedicine at Springer, said, "Springer stands behind evolutionary theory as a fundamental component of modern science education, especially now since the ‘intelligent design’ advocates have made worrying attempts to promote their views in public schools. We are committed to helping educators teach Darwin’s theory to students at all levels. Outreach and Education in Evolution will provide them with the tools they need.”

Outreach and Education in Evolution, a traditional peer-reviewed journal with nontraditional features, will address these concerns. Each quarterly issue will feature peer-reviewed articles on evolution, “letters from the trenches,” interviews with prominent scientists and educators, lesson plans, critical essays, cartoons, puzzles, reviews on evolution in the media (books, movies, museum openings and exhibitions) and more. The full-color online edition will offer added value, for example chat rooms, teaching resources and blogging opportunities. In addition, Springer has committed up to $10,000 annually in grants and prizes for the best paper, the best lesson plan, etc. The journal, aimed at members of the educational, museum, and scientific community involved in the teaching of evolutionary theory, will be available at a very affordable price.

Kathleen K. Smith, Director, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, said, “As an official partner of Outreach and Education in Evolution, NESCENT is pleased to support this important endeavor. Focusing on the issues and challenges surrounding evolution education, it will provide a much needed resource for teachers presenting this important but often poorly understood subject. I believe that it will fill a valuable niche.”

Douglas J. Futuyma, Distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University, added, “Increasing public understanding of science is of utmost importance. This is most urgently required with respect to evolution, which commands acceptance by less than half the American public. Springer’s new journal is very timely and indeed well overdue. It is sure to play a major role in science education in the United States and beyond.”

Telmo Pievani, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Milan, Italy, said, “Outreach and Education in Evolution is absolutely opportune in its mission. It is much needed today for European audiences as well, where some conservative and religious leaders have grasped the political power of the tricky ideas of ‘intelligent design.’ For such a project, education is the main pathway.”

Springer (www.springer.com) is the second-largest publisher worldwide in the science, technology, and medicine (STM) sector. Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media, one of the world’s leading suppliers of scientific and specialist literature. The group publishes over 1,700 journals and more than 5,500 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook Collection worldwide. Springer has operations in over 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and some 5,000 employees.

The editors-in-chief, Niles and Greg Eldredge, are available for interviews.

Contact:
Joan Robinson, joan.robinson@springer.com, tel +49-6221-487-8130
Eric Merkel-Sobotta, eric.merkel-sobotta@springer.com, tel +49-173-260-2377

Click here to download PDF press release (28k, view using Adobe Acrobat)

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