I was talking with Phil Johnson after his presentation at the Cornerstone
Christian Music Festival a few weeks ago. He told me about a recent
statement on the definition of evolution published in 1995 by the 8000
member National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT).
The excerpt below implies that evolution is, by definition, identical with
atheism. Teachers in the TE camp can teach that God has something to do
with evolution, but such claims contradict the atheistic meaning attached
to the word *evolution* by those who actually have the cultural authority
to define it: e.g. the NABT, Gould, Dawkins, and authors of leading
Biology texts such as Douglas Futuyma, whose definitions are equally
atheistic.
Here's the excerpt:
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National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT)
STATEMENT ON TEACHING EVOLUTION
[Adopted by the Board of Directors, March 15, 1995.]
The National Association of Biology Teachers, an
organization of science teachers, endorses the following tenets
of science, evolution and biology education:
The diversity of life on earth is the outcome of evolution: an
*unsupervised*, *impersonal*, unpredictable and natural process of
temporal descent with genetic modification that is affected by
natural selection, chance, historical contingencies and changing
environments.
[emphasis added by NR]
==========================end of excerpt===================================
If *unsupervised* and *impersonal* don't rule out TE, then look at the
conspicuous absence of the supernatural in the list of that which *affects*
evolution: natural selection, chance, historical contingencies and
changing environments.
According to the NABT, God is, as Phil Johnson puts it, "permanently
unemployed" at best.
So if you're in the TE camp, please consider rejecting TE on the basis that
it refutes itself. Or at least wait to affirm TE until after you aquire
cultural authority and use it to change the meaning of the word evolution.
There is a word for God having something to do with the origin and
devolopment of life: It's *creation*.
A few other exerpts from the same publication follow:
=========================================
As stated in The American Biology Teacher by the eminent
scientist Theodosius Dobzhansky (1973), "Nothing in biology makes
sense except in the light of evolution." This often-quoted
assertion accurately illuminates the central, unifying role of
evolution in nature, and therefore in biology.
Teaching biology in an effective and scientifically-honest manner
requires classroom discussions and laboratory experiences on
evolution. Modern biologists constantly study, ponder and
deliberate the patterns, mechanisms and pace of evolution, but
they do not debate evolution's occurrence. The fossil record and
the diversity of extant organisms, combined with modern
techniques of molecular biology, taxonomy and geology, provide
exhaustive examples and powerful evidence for genetic variation,
natural selection, speciation, extinction and other
well-established components of current evolutionary theory.
Scientific deliberations and modifications of these components
clearly demonstrate the vitality and scientific integrity of
evolution and the theory that explains it.
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FYI, I'm a christian, and I endorse the Progressive Creationist view.
Neal K. Roys