wfn.org | Presbyterian science-and-religion group naturally selects a defender

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Note #6071 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

of evolution
29-June-2000
GA00125

	Presbyterian science-and-religion group naturally selects a defender of
evolution

	by John Filiatreau

LONG BEACH, June 29 - Brown University cell biologist Ken Miller showed his
audience at Thursday's luncheon meeting of the Presbyterian Association on
Science, Technology and the Christian Faith a color slide of a
micro-organism magnified a million-and-a-half times, and told them they had
eaten "trillions" of the critters with the salad course.

	That information seemed to bother nobody in the Renaissance Hotel ballroom,
and when Miller went on to talk about natural selection and survival of the
fittest, they had no problem swallowing what he served up.
	Citing authorities from St. Augustine to Thomas Aquinas to Ashley Montague,
Miller debunked creationism and explained and defended the theory of
evolution, which he said describes a universe that is "flexible, dynamic and
logically complete." He said Darwinian theory has been incomparably useful
to science in its continuing effort to "understand and appreciate the
greater glory of God's world."

	Miller, who was promoting his recent book, "Finding Darwin's God: A
Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution," published
by Harper, Collins, is also a co-author of one of the most popular high
school biology textbooks in use in the United States. He began his address
by noting ruefully that educational authorities in several states have
removed from schoolbooks and classrooms all references to evolution, and in
some cases the "Big Bang" theory of the origin of the universe as well,
"because many people do not like (their) implications."

	He faulted his fellow scientists, including a few who flagrantly engage in
"scientific deception," and some Christians who believe in the literal truth
of the Bible, including the creation story in the Book of Genesis. But he
said that, while polls find that only 18 percent of Americans are Biblical
literalists, about 45 percent reject evolution, which he said suggests that
the scientific community must take much of the blame.

	Miller described a fish species that can live under the Antarctic ice
because it has evolved a way of manufacturing something similar to ethylene
glycol, anti-freeze, from a digestive enzyme, and thereby has developed a
"novel capability" through "numerous, successive slight alterations."

	Miller said the universe around us is the way it is because God gave us
"the freedom to influence our own lives," granted us "moral independence and
free will," and created us as beings "whose love for the Creator could be
genuine." God "used evolution as a tool to make us free," he said, adding:
"God works his will today in harmony with the natural world."

	He pointed out that St. Augustine warned in the year 411 about the harm
done by ignorant Christians "talking nonsense" on scientific matters.
	
	During a brief question-and-answer period, Miller said emerging genetic
technology "is going to force moral choices on us that we've never dealt
with before." He said it is crucial that people of good will and Christian
faith, like those in his audience, be involved in making those decisions.

	The Presbyterian Association on Science, Technology and the Christian Faith
was organized in 1992 during the 204th General Assembly in Milwaukee. Its
purpose is to help "the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ... to study,
understand, discuss and act on the implications of science and technology as
they affect the theology, worship, practice and moral actions of the
church." The group has about 200 members.

	The group's president, James B. Miller of Germantown, Md., pointing out
that people who attend the Assembly tend to get overburdened with paper,
urged his listeners to "lighten yourself by leaving a check" before
returning to the Assembly.

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