Michael Zimmerman, founder of the Clergy Letter Project, is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post’s Religion section. His latest post sounds a warning about yet another attempt by politicians to legislate against the teaching of evolution. These attempts would be laughable if they weren’t so dangerous. Especially notable is Zimmerman’s comment that a scientist’s religious beliefs not influence how we assess the quality of his or her science.
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B.
In a previous post, I introduced the idea of the objective/subjective divide. This concept refers to a real limitation of science to the realm of the objective – objects and events that can be witnessed by two or more people – and the space that limitation opens up for some other system to help us explore ourselves. In my case that system for self exploration is spiritual. Careful consideration of the objective/subjective divide opens up many questions, and the one I’d like to consider today is whether exiling science from our process of self discovery requires us to also exile some of the wonderful and important notions that science defines and defends in society. More specifically, today’s question is, have I opened the path to irrationality and a mind without regard to the laws of cause and effect? The less than obvious answer is no. For me, any system must stand up to a personal test of cause and effect, which for me is the very definition of being rational. Another interesting point that rises from this stance is whether I have simply opened the back door for science to investigate the subjective side of the divide. I argue, not.
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A flash point in the “conflict” between science and spirituality has been the teaching of creationist philosophy in public school science classes. The unnecessary rancor stems from many factors, but high on the list is a lack of understanding among religious laymen about what evolution is and isn’t, and what their religious traditions do and don’t say about evolution. As a remedy for the latter, Michael Zimmerman, Ph.D., has undertaken the Clergy Letter Project.
The clergy letter solicits support for the teaching of evolution from the religious establishment! The goal is to inform the public that many, many members of the clergy of the western traditions support the teaching of evolution as science.
Visit the website and support the project. I’m a scientific advisor to the project.
