Christian supporters of science oppose fundamentalists

Scientists, educators, business leaders, and clerics in the United States have joined together to counter “anti-evolution” religious advocates of creationism and “intelligent design” in the public sphere. The Alliance for Science was unveiled on 19 February at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“You don't have to choose between science and religion” as some fundamentalist readers of the Bible have argued, said Michael Zimmerman, dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and organiser of the Clergy Letter Project, a key part of the alliance.

The project was initiated in 2004 to oppose the introduction of creationism into a local school curriculum in Wisconsin. The letter, which has now been signed by 10 000 Christian clerics, states: “We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist.”

The internet based effort has expanded nationwide. On 12 February, which was the 197th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth (and consequently named Evolution Sunday), about 500 of them preached on that subject.

“I don't know why many fundamentalists seem to have science envy; it seems that they seek to redefine science in such a way that it will cover their religion. But science is much more limited than that,” said Dr Zimmerman. “We need to say we have enough faith in our faith that we don't need to have our faith ratified by science.”

“My European colleagues don't quite understand how this religious fundamentalism can impinge upon the teaching of science,” said Irving Wainer, who jointly chairs the Alliance for Science and is a clinical pharmacologist at the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health.

He believes that organisations such as the Discovery Institute, the leading group advocating intelligent design theory, are “playing on the fears” of social and economic change within US society in urging fundamentalists to return to the Bible at the expense of science. “We have to push for a revitalisation of teaching science again in this country.”

Paul Forbes, a retired management consultant and the alliance's other chairman, points to Americans' “scientific illiteracy,” as documented in a report last autumn from the National Academy of Sciences.

Many of the recommendations of that report have been shaped into legislation now before Congress that will increase support for science education and basic research and will create incentives for research. The alliance is supporting those initiatives.

More information on the Clergy Letter Project is at www.uwosh.edu/colleges/cols/clergy_project.htm. The National Academy of Sciences report is available at http://fermat.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html?onpi_newsdoc10122005.