In chapter three of her book Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, Michelle Goldberg explores the past and present role of intelligent design in American society and its tumultuous relationship with science. In their article “Sociobiology and Creationism: Two Ethnosociologies of American Culture” authors J. Patrick Gray and Linda D. Wolfe steer clear of the usual debate regarding which is correct: evolution or intelligent design. Rather, they take an absurd sidestep, reconciling the two concepts to promote traditional American values and demote alternative lifestyles which they claim, “threaten to destroy this [American] way of life” (Gray et al).
Though they recognize the differences between the two ideologies, Gray and Wolfe primarily focus on what they perceive to be their similarities. They claim that human rationality fails to dominate nature in the way that it must and that the secular world view is responsible for problems in today’s society. They also focus on the idea that anything that damages the family damages society, which they judge by using America’s “moral code” which is supported by both creationists (because it is what God wants) and evolutionists (because natural selection deems it so). It is important to note that Gray and Wolfe do not define “moral code” in their article, but judging from their thesis, one can assume that morals refer to traditional values that are the social-norm.
I do not agree with Gray and Wolfe, whose ideas are strained, obscure, and offer little insight into any real analysis between the relationship of evolution and creationism. That being said, I did think that their attempt to reconcile the two concepts was interesting. In Kingdom Coming, Goldberg stresses that one can believe in both evolution and intelligent design. We learned in class that some people, when faced with the dichotomy between science and God, often make the two compatible, reject one or the other, make the other sacred, or form a new kind of Christianity. Conservatives Gray and Wolfe have forged a new system, one that essentially rejects evolution while living in harmony with it--though one could argue that they manipulate and even bastardize evolution for their own Evangelical purposes.
Works Cited:
Goldberg, Michelle. Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. New York,
New York. W.W. Norton & Company. 2006.
Sociobiology and Creationism: Two Ethnosociologies of American Culture
J. Patrick Gray and Linda D. Wolfe. American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 84, No. 3 (Sep., 1982), pp. 580-594. JSTOR.
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Evolution is to be taught in biology classes in public high schools. Creationism should be taught in a comparative religion class in a public school.
ReplyDeleteMy mother attended a private Catholic school in the 1960s; surprisingly, the instructors did not merge science and religion as the 'Intelligent Design' advocates try to do. Instead, they recognized evolution as a theory in science, and Creationism as part of a belief system.