Darwin's Dangerous Idea Read Free

carbohydrates while subsisting on diem.
    —WILURD VAN ORMAN QUINE I960, pp. 4-6

    1. Is NOTHING SACRED?
    CHAPTER ONE
    Tell Me Why
    We used to sing a lot when I was a child, around the campfire at summer camp, at school and Sunday school, or gathered around the piano at home.
    One of my favorite songs was "Tell Me Why." (For those whose personal memories don't already embrace this little treasure, the music is provided in the appendix. The simple melody and easy harmony line are surprisingly beautiful.)
    Tell me why the stars do shine,
    Tell me why the ivy twines,
    Tell me why die sky's so blue.
    Then I will tell you just why I love you.
    Because God made the stars to shine, Because
    God made the ivy twine, Because God made
    the sky so blue. Because God made you, that's
    why I love you.
    This straightforward, sentimental declaration still brings a lump to my throat—so sweet, so innocent, so reassuring a vision of life!
    And then along comes Darwin and spoils the picnic. Or does he? That is the topic of this book. From the moment of the publication of Origin of Species in 1859, Charles Darwin's fundamental idea has inspired intense reactions ranging from ferocious condemnation to ecstatic allegiance, sometimes tantamount to religious zeal. Darwin's theory has been abused and misrepresented by friend and foe alike. It has been misappropriated to lend scientific respectability to appalling political and social doctrines. It has been pilloried in caricature by opponents, some of whom would have it 18 TELL ME WHY
    Is Nothing Sacred? 19

    compete in our children's schools with "creation science," a pathetic hodge-irresistible parts. Then—if we were lucky—perhaps the rock-solid scientific podge of pious pseudo-science.1
    facts would have no stunning implications about religion, or human nature, Almost no one is indifferent to Darwin, and no one should be. The Dar-or the meaning of life, while the parts of Darwin's idea that get people all winian theory is a scientific theory, and a great one, but that is not all it is.
    upset could be put into quarantine as highly controversial extensions of, or The creationists who oppose it so bitterly are right about one thing: Darwin's mere interpretations of, the scientifically irresistible parts. That would be dangerous idea cuts much deeper into the fabric of our most fundamental reassuring.
    beliefs than many of its sophisticated apologists have yet admitted, even to But alas, that is just about backwards. There are vigorous controversies themselves.
    swirling around in evolutionary theory, but those who feel threatened by The sweet, simple vision of the song, taken literally, is one that most of us Darwinism should not take heart from this fact. Most—if not quite all—of have outgrown, however fondly we may recall it. The kindly God who the controversies concern issues that are "just science"; no matter which side lovingly fashioned each and every one of us ( all creatures great and small) wins, the outcome will not undo the basic Darwinian idea. That idea, which and sprinkled the sky with shining stars for our delight— that God is, like is about as secure as any in science, really does have far-reaching Santa Claus, a myth of childhood, not anything a sane, undeluded adult could implications for our vision of what the meaning of life is or could be.
    literally believe in. That God must either be turned into a symbol for In 1543, Copernicus proposed that the Earth was not the center of the something less concrete or abandoned altogether.
    universe but in fact revolved around the Sun. It took over a century for the Not all scientists and philosophers are atheists, and many who are believ-idea to sink in, a gradual and actually rather painless transformation. (The ers declare that their idea of God can live in peaceful coexistence with, or religious reformer Philipp Melanchthon, a collaborator of Martin Luther, even find support from, the Darwinian framework of ideas. Theirs is not