Famed Philosopher of Evolution Discusses History of Conflict over Darwinism

On September 26, Professor Michael Ruse, a celebrated philosopher of biology, addressed students and faculty members in two different settings in conjunction with the ongoing Yeshiva College book project. Ruse, who is the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy and Director of the History and Philosophy of Science Programs at Florida State University, participated in a roundtable discussion with Yeshiva professors on the topic of science and religion and delivered a lecture on the history of the creationism-evolutionism conflict.

The evening lecture was entitled "Darwinism and Atheism: A Marriage Made in Heaven?" and was held in Furst Hall, room 501. Although one of the larger venues on campus for a lecture, only around fifty students and faculty were in attendance for Ruse's Power Point lecture.

As the tongue-in-cheek title implies, the lecture focused on the history of the development of Darwinian evolution and its relationship with Christianity. Ruse stressed that he would not focus on the conflict between Judaism and evolution since he believes that the two do not clash. Only through the lense of biblical literalism does evolution and Judaism quarrel. Ruse focused his lecture on the issue of the rise of biblical literalism as a political tool to counter progressive ideology.

He began his argument by describing Christianity during the Enlightenment. The new ideas at the time split religion into two camps: that of the Theists, who believe that God intervenes in the world of man, and the Deists who believe God lets the world run by its own design. But this stratum did not immediately lead to the belief in biblical literalism; rather it solidified the camps into those that believed in progress, the Deists, and those who believed in providence, the Theists. Darwinism, argued Ruse, was the offspring of deistic thought, what Ruse called, "the bastard child of Christianity," since it developed from numerous ideas of nineteenth century Christian thinkers. Ruse made sure to point out that Charles Darwin was an Anglican pastor when he wrote his magnum opus, The Origin of Species, and that "religion was something that was very important in leading people into accepting evolution," Ruse said. "I do not see evolution as something that is anti-religion."

Ruse made the analogy that similar to Paul interpreting the words of Jesus, thereby establishing the Christian faith, Darwinian Evolution as it is known today exists because of the spread of it by T.H. Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog" and main disciple. He used evolution as a way to weaken the power of the conservative Anglican Church by turning evolution into a new form of religion that emphasized progress as opposed to conservatism.

It was not until this point that evolution was viewed as a threat to organized religion. Prior to this, Ruse stated, there was no conflict with those who bought into evolution and those who maintained a strict faith. The rise of Christian biblical literalism in America in the late nineteenth century added a new dimension to the conflict. Ruse argued that biblical literalism was supported by the southern states, who felt that a literal reading of the Bible provided license for slavery, but was denounced by the more progressive northern states.

Ruse closed the night by briefly discussing the ongoing debate about teaching intelligent design (the idea that life is too complex to have generated randomly) in schools and dismissing myths like irreducible complexity. Students in the audience quickly raised objections to Ruse's disproof of intelligent design, but he swiftly delivered various biological proofs to refute the numerous challenges.

Earlier in the day, a roundtable discussion was held in Furst Hall, room 535, which included Ruse, Dr. Norman Adler, Dr. Carl Feit, Rabbi Shalom Carmy, Dr. Manfred Weidhorn, Dr. Moshe Bernstein, Dr. Gabriel Cwilich, and Dr. David Johnson. While the title of the discussion was "Teleological Arguments: Darwin and YU," what was mainly discussed was whether a person of faith can take part in scientific study while still remaining religious. The speakers were divided into two sections - those that thought that science and religion can be reconciled and those that thought that the two should remain entirely separate. Cwilich was pleased with the discussion, "I'm very glad that this topic was developed," he said. "I think this was a very successful event."

Feit, who has known Ruse for many years, said Ruse is "widely recognized as being a world scholar in this subject. He is both prodigious and prolific in his thinking."

Ruse appreciated his stay in YU, stating that, "this is my second visit to Yeshiva. I wouldn't come if I didn't feel welcome and I think that people at YU share the same kind of values in life that I do."

The YC book project is an annual event for first year students on campus. All students are instructed to read one book each year for the project and numerous lectures throughout the year correspond to the subject of the book. This year, the book was Stephan Jay Gould's Bully for Brontosaurus, a book of essays focusing on many aspects of science and evolution.

The director of the Book Project, Professor Elizabeth Stewart, was pleased with Dr. Ruse's lecture. "This topic is clearly one that we must address with YU students. My sense is that many students are aware and worried about the issues Gould and Ruse address. But they need more basic information. It's likely that we will be organizing more events than usual this year so that we can educate students in these questions so relevant once again to our social, political, and individual lives."