Getting Beyond Religion As Science: "Unstifling" Worldview Formation in American Public Education
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Getting Beyond Religion as Science: "Unstifling" Worldview Formation in American Public Education Barry P. McDonald* Abstract Since ancient times, Western civilization has witnessed a great debate over a simple but profound question: From whence did we come? Two major worldviews have dominated that debate: a theistic worldview holding that we, and the world in which we live, are the purposeful product of a supernatural creator; and a materialistic worldview holding that we are the product of unintelligent and random natural forces. This debate rose to the fore with Darwin’s publication of his theory of evolution and the development of the modern scientific establishment. In America, it initially took its most conspicuous form in efforts by creationists to ban the teaching of evolution in American public schools, and then to have creationism taught as science. After legal setbacks based on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, that effort morphed into the intelligent design movement of the past couple of decades. That movement’s aim to gain a place in the science curriculum recently stalled with a court ruling that it was, like the creationists before it, attempting to teach religious concepts as science. Most recently, a notable group of scientists and atheists have reversed the trend of defending science against religious attacks and launched a very public and aggressive campaign against religion itself. Prominent scientists and other believers have responded with works attempting to reconcile science and faith. * Associate Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law. J.D., Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois (1988). I would like to extend my grateful thanks and appreciation to Kent Greenawalt, Kurt Lash, and Steve Smith for some very helpful comments on this Article. I would also like to thank Tim Del Castillo for his excellent research assistance and gratefully acknowledge funding for my work from a research grant provided by Pepperdine University School of Law. 587 588 66 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 587 (2009) This Article proposes a solution to the "religion as science" wars in American public schools, as well as to the failure of those schools not only to prepare American youths to understand and participate in this vital debate, but also to make informed and thoughtful decisions regarding their own worldviews. Due to confusion about applicable Establishment Clause law or otherwise, most public schools fail to educate students about the important role of religion in our society, including religious perspectives on the most fundamental question regarding our existence—the nature of our origins. The solution proposed herein is one that some, including presidential candidates, have suggested, but no one has articulated how and whether it can be legally done: Teaching a basic philosophy of origins course that is geared to upper level high school students that teaches and explores various origins accounts from both scientific and religious perspectives. This Article suggests the contours of such a course and explains how one could be offered consistent with First Amendment requirements. By examining this subject utilizing the time-honored discipline of philosophical analysis, which not only considers the empirical evidence properly demanded by science but other sources of human knowledge as well, American youth would be better prepared to take part in this dialogue and to appreciate the perspectives of others. It is also hoped that such an approach would relieve much of the pressure placed on the science curriculum by those religious citizens who view it, and the generally secular agenda of public education, as promoting a worldview at odds with their most deeply- held convictions. Table of Contents I. Introduction .............................................................................. 589 II. The Western Materialism-Theism Divide and Its Manifestations in American Public Education and Popular Culture .................. 601 A. Greco-European Antecedents ............................................. 601 B. American Contest Phase One: Creationists Attack Science .............................................................................. 607 C. Phase Two: Intelligent Design Attacks Science ................. 612 D. Phase Three: Science’s Assault on the Religious Worldview ......................................................................... 618 III. The Future of Creationism and Intelligent Design in the Science Classroom, and the Proper Place To Teach Origins in the Public School Curriculum .................................. 622 GETTING BEYOND RELIGION AS SCIENCE 589 A. Why Insistence on Teaching Religion as Science? ............. 622 B. Do Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Their Critiques of Evolutionary Theory Belong in the Science Classroom?...................................................... 625 C. A Basic Philosophy of Origins Course To Bridge the Science-Religion Divide ............................................... 646 IV. Teaching a Philosophy of Origins Course in Public High Schools ..................................................................................... 655 A. Could Such a Course Be Taught Consistent with the Establishment Clause? .......................................... 655 B. The Free Speech Clause as a Mediator of Establishment Clause Ambiguity in the Public School Classroom ............ 661 C. Keeping a Philosophy of Origins Course Within Permissible Constitutional Bounds ..................................... 665 V. Conclusion................................................................................ 671 A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. Sir Francis Bacon ("father" of modern science) In the long run nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion offers to both is only too palpable. Sigmund Freud (Twentieth century psychiatrist) I. Introduction Are we the product of purposeful creation or impersonal natural forces? This BIG QUESTION about our existence is easy to ask, but hardly easy to answer—at least with any degree of consensus. In fact, this simple question is turning out to be one of the most divisive and intractable in the modern age. To an increasing degree it has underlain the major legal battles between science and religion in America1 and is rapidly becoming a centerpiece of our current "culture wars"—so much, indeed, that U.S. presidential candidates were 1. See, e.g., David Ray Griffin, Process Philosophy and Theology, in THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN THE WESTERN TRADITION 214, 214 (Gary B. Ferngren et al. eds., 2000) (explaining that the conflict between naturalistic and theistic worldviews lies behind much of the conflict between science and religionists who read the Bible literally). 590 66 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 587 (2009) queried about this issue in a major debate of the 2008 race with their responses receiving more press than their policy positions.2 Charles Darwin effectively (and somewhat reticently)3 injected this question into the public consciousness in the latter half of the nineteenth century, because before he published his evolutionary theory Western civilization largely assumed that God purposively created our world and its inhabitants.4 Darwin’s theory of natural selection and the evolution of species, however, suddenly presented what many viewed as an alternative materialistic explanation for the origins of human life.5 This view was by no means dictated by Darwin’s theory, however, and many theologians of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries argued that the concepts of Darwinian evolution and 2. See, e.g., Kathleen Parker, Evolution, Creation Dicey Debate Topics, BALT. SUN, May 14, 2007, at 9A (discussing how the "[d]o you believe in evolution?" debate question put to Republican presidential candidates "remains controversial among some people of faith— including some respected scientists—for whom evolutionary theory reduces man’s world to a godless accident bereft of moral meaning or structure"); see also Patricia Cohen, A Split Emerges as Conservatives Discuss Darwin, N.Y. TIMES, May 5, 2007, at A1 (discussing the presidential debate and observing that "[f]or some conservatives, accepting Darwin undercuts religious faith and produces an amoral materialistic worldview that easily embraces abortion, embryonic stem cell research and other practices they abhor," while explaining how other conservatives have begun relying on Darwin’s theories to support many conservative causes). Other recent examples of this culture war abound. A notable one is reflected in the recent movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which attempts to paint a portrait of a scientist-atheist conspiracy to thwart the teaching of ideas from the Intelligent Design movement in public schools. EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED (Rocky Mountain Pictures 2008). On the other side of the divide, for recent movies attacking religious worldviews, see RELIGULOUS (Lionsgate 2008) and THE GOD WHO WASN’T THERE (Beyond Belief Media 2005). 3. See Mary Jo Murphy, Word for Word; My Dear Fellow Species, N.Y. TIMES, May 20, 2007, at D5 (reporting about a new online collection of Darwin’s letters, and discussing one in which Darwin describes relating his conclusion that species were not immutable as "like confessing a murder"). 4. See, e.g., WARREN A. NORD, RELIGION & AMERICAN EDUCATION: RETHINKING A NATIONAL DILEMMA 287 (1995) (noting that