Readers of the Rev. Tom Eckstein's commentary on evolution might get the mistaken impression that there is scientific support for his views.
Eckstein suggests that the creation museum in Kentucky does not reject science. It does reject very well-established science. They are free to do so. I only object to the implication that any support for this view can be found from within science.
It is dishonest to suggest that the consensus for evolution is somehow different from the consensus regarding whether the earth moves or matter is composed of atoms, or to suggest a parallel between the massive positive evidence for evolution with the absence of scientific evidence one way or the other for the virgin birth.
There have been no articles disputing macroevolution in the scientific literature in more than 50 years but such an article would be necessary to support Eckstein's claim that there is a scientific controversy.
Eckstein is confusing minor disagreements about details, which occur in all healthy sciences, with disagreements about evolution itself, and he confuses the status and evidence for microevolution versus macroevolution (macroevolution is more strongly supported by the evidence).
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Eckstein is free to reject the scientific consensus, but it is not acceptable to confuse the public about the state of the science or to suggest support for his view from within science.
A nonliteral reading of Genesis goes back at least to Augustine in the 5th century who argued that Genesis has a logical rather than temporal framework and a spiritual rather than physical meaning, which is no less literal. This did not lead to erosion of belief in the Bible in the millennia that followed. Augustine also warned about the damage to faith in interpreting scriptures in a way contrary to scientific knowledge:
"Even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, ... Now, it is a ... dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such a situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn."
Dr. Bruce R. Jensen
Jamestown
(Jensen is a professor of biology at Jamestown College)
This letter was originally published in the Jamestown Sun.
