A critical appraisal of Darwin

The conference that drew multi-discipinary scientists, philosophers and theologians to Rome last week to assess facts and theories of evolution has generated a lot of heat and light.

And growing media interest, best explained probably by the Church’s role in it.

The conference, titled “Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories,” was sponsored and organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture’s Science, Technology and the Ontological Quest project, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, and several of Rome’s pontifical universities.

The assembly itself was highly unusual, as one of the speakers pointed out early on the first day. Douglas Futuyma, a professor of ecology and evolution at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, said that though he attends many conferences within his field of expertise, this assembly of interdisciplinary experts promised an event that could be ‘the best week of my life’, no less.

Futuyma was Jesuit trained in his schooling, he said, and appreciates that education and moral framework. But his approach to the issue is purely scientific. The article leads with his thinking:

Charles Darwin’s theory that all living organisms have descended from one common biological species is a scientific fact that has tremendously aided medical research,

and

common biological ancestry is the basis upon which all scientific research is conducted

said Futuyma.

The conference was heavy on science, though with the presence of philosophers, theologians and academics from around the world, the Q&A and discussion sessions got very interesting. When asked whether the reliance on “open ended possibilities” of science hadn’t actually become its own act of faith, Futuyma said scientific belief is “always an approximation to what we assume is a reality instead of attaining an absolute truth.” When he was challenged again on scientific assumptions, he said this…

Can we ever claim that any statement is a fact? We can never do that. What do we mean by fact? It’s not something I know with unshakeable certainty, but something with so much supportive evidence, we must treat it as if it were true.

This is what the conference sponsors were after, wrestling with facts and theories and even arguing about that constitutes a fact or a theory.

Gennaro Auletta, who teaches the philosophy of science at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and heads the culture council’s project, said the aim of the five-day conference was to offer a critical appraisal of Darwin’s theories of natural selection and evolution.

Modern scientific discoveries have modified and added greater detail to Darwin’s findings, he said in an interview published March 4 in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

For example, he said, many now see that “the evolution and development of an organism is the result of a co-evolution — a co-adaptation” between the organism and its environment, which are constantly interacting with each other…

Theologians and many scientists recognize the universe “is not just a random jumble of elements, but is a structure that we can define as being, if not intelligent, then at least intelligible,” he said.

However, Auletta said, this has nothing to do with the claims of intelligent design, which accepts that life has evolved over the eons but that because it is so complex its development has been guided by a supreme being or intelligent agent, which some identify as God.

Intelligent design “is not a scientific theory even if it tries to pass itself off as one,” he said.

He said Catholic theologians understand the distinction between God, who is the first cause of the universe, and his autonomous creatures and creation.

Furthermore…

The Italian expert asserted that the Church “has never adopted an attitude of condemnation” towards Darwinism.”

“This is one of the many reasons that in my opinion make all the efforts to recover or rehabilitate Darwin superfluous, because neither the Catholic Church nor her most important exponents have ever condemned Darwinism or the theory of evolution,” he said.

“It [Darwinism] has always been given much attention,” Auletta said.  “We only need to recall that Cardinal John Henry Newman in England was a clear supporter, since its beginnings, of Darwinism. I would even say that since the famous statement by John Paul II in 1996 we have entered a phase of recognition.”

This engagement of even the debate over science and faith in creation and evolution has drawn a lot of criticism from all sides. Vatican officials involved in it know that.

Speaking at the opening of a Vatican conference marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s Origin of Species, Cardinal William Levada said that it is “absurd” to suggest that modern science can disprove the existence of God. The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that scientific inquiry and religious faith are separate endeavors, and it is a logical error to think that one could determine the other. Christian doctrine does not explain the physical processes by which Creation took place, the cardinal observed. “We believe that however creation has come about and evolved, ultimately God is the creator of all things,” he explained. Briefly addressing the debate over Creationist theory, the American prelate said that the Church would not take a stand on a properly scientific issue. “The Vatican listens and learns,” he said.