As David O. pointed out, Campolo's final point is OK -- that Christians
should not fear scientific study of how God made us, and that we affirm a
qualitative difference (we should note George's concern about "infinite") in humans
from God's other creatures.
It seems like Campolo made two significant mistakes on his way there.
The first is that Campolo ascribes much more racism and eugenics to Darwin
personally than seems justified based on the work of his biographers. Some
reading on Campolo's part could have corrected this -- he could have expressed
opposition to social and ideological extrapolations of Darwin's work without
so heavily blaming Darwin himself for those effects.
The second (more foundational) mistake is something that has come up on this
list many times -- the sloppy use of the label "Darwinism". Campolo's essay
is more evidence on the side of those who say the word now carries so much
baggage and confusion that it should never be used. To the (small) extent the
word is used in scientific discourse, it refers to biological evolution
(common descent, natural selection). For anti-evolution propagandists like Phil
Johnson, "Darwinism" lumps together the science of biological evolution with
a lot of philosophical baggage (lack of purpose, sometimes Social Darwinism).
The result is confused discourse, as we see in this essay which one
eventually realizes is not about biological evolution at all, but about the Social
Darwinism and eugenics which some justified from Darwin's science. By using
"Darwinism" in this sloppy way, Campolo perpetuates a usage (and a conflation
of the science of biological evolution with its unjustified social and
philosophical extrapolations) that is toxic to science/faith dialogue.
On this second issue, Campolo's essay could have been fine (with corrections
on the history) if he had just chosen a title that did not perpetuate the
harmful misuse of the word "Darwinism". It should have been titled something
like:
"Darwin's science, OK; Social Darwinism, no way"
Allan (ASA member)
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Received on Sat Feb 28 12:45:54 2009
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