[asa] Learning from Ron Numbers

Folks,

An interview with Ron Numbers just came to my attention. He was
interviewed after giving a talk in Salon and I thought he said some
things which might be helpful to us. Note especially the last answer I
have quoted that starts:
"Unlike many people, I haven't gone out of my way to attack or ridicule
critics of evolution"

Sad that Numbers who is an agnostic treats YEC and others he disagrees
with with more respect than I find in the way we treat each other or
those we disagree with on this list.

By Steve Paulson of Loan

Found at url:
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2007/01/02/numbers/index.html
[snip]
There's a stereotype that creationists just aren't that smart. I mean,
how can you ignore the steady accumulation of scientific evidence for
evolution? Is this a question of intelligence or education?
Not fundamentally. There is a slight skewing of anti-evolutionists
toward lower levels of education. But it's not huge. One recent poll
showed that a quarter of college graduates in America reject evolution.
So it's not education itself that's doing this. There are really dumb
creationists and there are really dumb evolutionists. Of the 10 founders
of the Creation Research Society, five of them earned doctorates in the
biological sciences from major universities. Another had a Ph.D. from
Berkeley in biochemistry. Another had a Ph.D. from the University of
Minnesota. These were not dumb, uneducated people. They rejected
evolution for religious and, they would say, scientific reasons.

But that's so hard to understand. If you get a graduate degree in the
biological sciences, how can you still allow religion to trump science?

They don't see it that way. They see religion as informing their
scientific choices. I think it's extremely hard for human beings to see
the world as others see it. I have a hard time seeing the world as
Muslim fundamentalists see it. And yet, there are many very smart
Muslims out there who have a totally different cosmology and theology
from what I have. I think one of the goals of education is to help
students, and perhaps help ourselves, see the world the way others see
it so we don't just judge and say, "They're just too stupid to know
better.
"
My guess is that the most persuasive arguments for evolution are not
going to come through scientific reasoning. They're going to come from
scientists, and from theologians and other people of faith, who say you
can believe in God and still accept evolution, that there's nothing
incompatible about the two. Do you agree?
To a large extent, I do. But I think the influence of those
middle-ground people is limited. Conservatives don't trust them. They
think they've already sold out to modernism and liberalism. And a lot of
the more radical scientists spurn them as well. Richard Dawkins, for
example, would argue that evolution is inherently atheistic. That's
exactly what the fundamentalists are saying. They agree on that. So you
have these people in the middle saying, "No, no. It's not atheistic for
me. I believe in God and maybe in Jesus Christ. And in evolution."
Having these loud voices on either side of them really tends to restrict
the influence that they might otherwise have.
[Snip]

Now, one thing I find curious is your own position in this debate. Your
book "The Creationists" is generally acknowledged to be the history of
creationism. You've also been very upfront about your own lack of
religious belief. Yet, as far as I can tell, you seem to be held in high
regard both by creationists and by scientists, which -- I have to say --
is a neat trick. How have you managed this?
Unlike many people, I haven't gone out of my way to attack or ridicule
critics of evolution. I know some of the people I've written about.
They're good people. I know it's not because they're stupid that they
are creationists. I'm talking about all my family, too, who are still
creationists. So that easy explanation that so many anti-creationists
use -- that they're just illiterate hillbillies -- doesn't have any
appeal to me, although I'm quite happy to admit that there are some
really stupid creationists.

-- 
James Mahaffy (mahaffy@dordt.edu)          Phone: 712 722-6279
498 4th Ave NE
Biology Department                                     FAX :  712
722-1198
Dordt College, Sioux Center IA 51250-1697
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