Only Freedom can make Security Secure
Why Darwinism destroys debate
Once in my undergraduate days, I decided to ask my chemistry professor a few questions about evolution. Entropy is a measure of disorder in systems, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that entropy is always increasing in the universe. I decided to meet with him privately to ask him how this would apply to evolution. Rather than increasing entropy, evolution seems to argue that molecules began in a state of disorder and became more ordered over time. This appears to be a violation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. My professor’s counter-argument was that in certain closed systems, such as the early Earth atmosphere, entropy could decrease, and he believed that this was the mechanism allowing the first life to form on earth. I countered him with the point that unless an organism already has a system in place to use energy, it will continue to be destructive. For example, sunlight shining on a plant that had not yet evolved photosynthesis would end up destroying the plant, not helping it to grow. The energy from sunlight would have likely killed plants off before they ever had the chance to evolve photosynthesis. Within the course of the conversation I mentioned that I was a Creationist, at which point the academic discussion stopped and the insults began. No longer was he willing to debate the points of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Instead he informed me that my parents had brainwashed me, and that if I did not grow up, my career was dead and I would never amount to anything.
I have many more such stories, as do many other scientists who are Creationists. Since these conversations occur with Ph.D.s who are well educated in their field, and believe Creationism is idiotic, they should be adept at coming up with an intelligent argument against it. However, it seems to be in the fundamental nature of Darwinism to shut down discussion, and often violently, accompanied by insults. Often times mere insults and accusations are not enough, some scientists have been stripped of career opportunities, graduate students have been kicked out of programs, and most marginalized or silenced. Cancel culture was alive and well in the science world long before it became popular in the rest of the culture. Since DNA has provided a counterexample to Darwinism, it has ceased to be an empirical theory and has become a Kuhnian paradigm; it only remains because scientists say that it should. Just like Plato’s Republic, Darwinism continues to persist because it is the reigning paradigm of the closed society that remains in force due to consensus and power, rather than open inquiry and rational discussion. Any questioning of the paradigm, like during the Covid lockdowns, is tantamount to rebellion against the authority and must be cut out of the conversation.
One of the byproducts of Thomas Kuhn’s popularity was the growth of sociology. Since Kuhn believed that there were no independent scientific facts, everything must be interpreted in the social construct of the society in which it came about. Methods that work in the natural sciences do not work in the social sciences. Sociologists don’t need to have controlled experiments or formulate theories with predictive power, since social phenomena can only be truly understood by the person involved. As a result, the new arbiter of natural law becomes the individual rather than any facts in the natural world, which leads to the use of psychology and psychotherapy to influence the individual. In reaction to the psychotherapy techniques that were implemented into public school classrooms in the 1980s, many parents began to look for alternatives to public education. This era saw the growth of the homeschooling movement, but also a movement in classical education. Rather than just repeat the mistakes of recent generations, parents interested in classical education looked even further back then the last 200 years of American public education to a time when the classics were taught from Kindergarten through high school. Often called classical schools, these schools desired to recover faithful educational techniques from the past that had worked for thousands of years. Rather than merely job training or psychotherapy, these schools endeavor to teach the history and language of Western civilization in an attempt to fully educate students in the “liberal” tradition, restoring the “liberal arts” to their original place in society. The “liberal arts” were originally a reference to the education that a rulers and the upper class would receive in Athenian democracy to teach him how to be a free man of the state. Rather than just memorizing disjointed facts and material, a liberal arts education was supposed to make a free man, fully inculturated to his society in the arts of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In the 21st century we often mock students in the liberal arts, calling these degrees “useless,” as if your life’s goal was to be a barista who brags about having a philosophy major. On the contrary, the true goal of a liberal arts education is to teach a man who is capable of doing a multitude of endeavors, not just job training for a specific career.
Since the liberal arts has generally included a review of Western Civilization, a liberal arts degree will often begin with the ancient Greek philosophers. Dr. Louis Markos, a literature professor who is active in the classical, Christian school movement, calls Plato a “proto-Christian,” and states, “Plato helped teach the Western world that knowledge is something that should be sought for its own sake rather than as a utilitarian method for achieving power and wealth—a teaching foundational to all liberal arts institutions.” One classical, Christian school posts on their website the following statement on Plato:
Our mission is guided by a Christian and Classical philosophy of education, the latter rooted in ancient Greece. Plato, called the “father of education” because of his extraordinary treatise on education, The Republic, designed a model of education to train youth to become leaders and rulers in his theoretical “just and noble city.” Remarkably, some of the themes first raised by Plato were expressed more completely hundreds of years later by Jesus Christ. This makes Christian faith and classical education powerful allies in building strong foundations for our students’ lives. (citation)
It is a marvel that a man who believed that only a few, select individuals were to control society, that the rest of the human sheep were only to do as they were told, and this should be enforced with infanticide and eugenics would be held up as an example of education for a Christian school. Even though eugenics has mostly received a bad wrap after World War II, its rationalism is still regularly upheld by Darwinists, just like Plato did thousands of years ago. In 2020, the famous evolutionary apologist Richard Dawkins posted on Twitter, “It’s one thing to deplore eugenics on ideological, political, moral grounds. It’s quite another to conclude that it wouldn’t work in practice. Of course it would. It works for cows, horses, pigs, dogs, and roses. Why on earth wouldn’t it work for humans? Facts ignore ideology.” Rather than teaching the traditions of freedom, as long as Plato is held up as a model for these students, then the liberal arts are preparing students for totalitarianism.
This is why any classical education that values Plato will eventually embrace Darwinism and all forms of scientific consensus. Rather than being a departure from classical education, our current academic dilemmas might actually be a fulfillment of our godless classical education. As Karl Popper stated, “an educational system that is still based on the classics with their romantic view of the history of power and their romantic tribal morality, which goes back to Heraclitus; a system whose ultimate basis is the worship of power” (Popper 480). Since its revival nearly 40 years ago, educators have clearly seen that classical education works, and classical educators often encourage those who are a part of the movement be claiming that most of the great minds in Western Civilization received a classical education: from Augustine to George Washington. However, with great knowledge also comes responsibility: one must never forget that Plato, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Kuhn also all received classical educations.
This is why when Novare Science author John Mays argues that all science is “theory-based,” he is arguing for something closer to a Kuhnian paradigm than the Theory of Gravity. In his parlance, “theory-based” is just another way of describing science as the consensus of the scientists, rather than the tools of experiment and falsification. The issues of Kuhnian science, Darwinism, and classical education are all closely tied together. John Mays’ brother is Jeffrey Mays, who was on the governing board of the Biologos organization until very recently. Biologos markets itself as a Christian organization that is devoted to embracing Theistic Evolution, which is essentially arguing that God directed Darwinism. At the same time he was on the board of Biologos, Jeffrey Mays was also on the board of Classical Academic Press, which publishes the Novare Science textbook series. He regularly blogged for his brother’s science curriculum and promoted it at classical school events. John Mays has been a guest speaker for Biologos, where he showcases a Christian apologetic for Darwinism. In the closed society of Darwinism and Novare Science, there may not be argument or discussion, which is why John Mays insists that the debate about the age of the Earth amongst Christians needs to be over. Consensus states that everyone must fall in line with the best science of the day.
Biologos has other connections to the Kuhnian model of science. Their current chairman is Dr. Francis Collins, who was the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2009-2021. In 2017, Dr. Collins successfully removed the legal ban on gain-of-function research on viruses which had been instituted by President Barack Obama. Gain-of-function research occurs when scientists genetically engineer a virus to become more virulent in the hopes of developing vaccines against the particular strain. Under Dr. Collins’ leadership, the NIH used taxpayer money to fund research on viruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, which was where the Covid-19 virus was first identified. In the fall of 2020, after Covid-19 became a worldwide pandemic, Dr. Collins used his authority as head of the NIH to shut scientists out of research and the media who were critical of the government’s vaccination and lockdown procedures. Then before the utter failures of the Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccination campaigns could be fully realized, Dr. Collins resigned his position as director of the NIH to become the acting science advisor to President Joe Biden.
Thomas Kuhn’s book gave science the opportunity to re-define scientific study, and guide it away from empiricism. This is why pointing to the failures of climate or Covid policy often fall on deaf ears. As Kuhn said, “As in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice—there is no standard higher than the assent of the relevant community” (Kuhn 94). Without absolute truth, then only power relationships of scientific consensus remain, which means that science ultimately becomes about power. And if power is the only means of scientific study, then the pathway to understand the natural world becomes political, rather than empirical. If scientific revolution is tied to political revolution, then downstream from the widespread acceptance of Darwinism will come more social revolutions. Already Communist Russia and Nazi Germany openly avowed a fundamental commitment to Darwinism, but as scientific theories go, Darwinism is still young and has other options. Rather than the massive graveyards of the Communists and Fascists, a long slow death of human ingenuity is planned for in the Climate Revolution. Environmental regulations have slowed the growth of nearly every industry in the West, while we have self-imposed rules that limit our supply of resources and throttle the economy. Due to climate fears, human reproduction has fallen well below replacement rates. Since 2016, 46 different countries and municipalities around the world have declared a climate emergency, allowing the government to take extra action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, the state of California has already outlawed the sale of gasoline-powered small engines, like lawn mowers or trimmers. There is a plan to phase out the selling of gasoline-powered vehicles over the next 10 years, and plans on the table to limit natural gas heaters and stoves in new homes. Much like the Covid lockdowns, most of these regulations end up hurting mostly the poor, who depend on cheap travel and utilities for their homes.
On the other hand, is the democratizing power of the open society absolutely depends on valuing empirical evidence. God often requires us to first use the evidence of our eyes when we look to human nature, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” says Psalm 34:8. The essence of human nature should be self-evident, as G.K. Chesterton said, “Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved” (Chesterton, Orthodoxy). Empirical evidence, combined with a trust in the rationalism of our neighbor, ushered in The Scientific Revolution that bore fruit in both the Protestant Reformation and Western democracy. Karl Popper again states:
“Thus rationalism in our sense is diametrically opposed to all those modern Platonic dreams of brave new worlds in which the growth of reason would be controlled or ‘planned’ by some superior reason. Reason, like science, grows by way of mutual criticism; the only possible way of ‘planning’ its growth is to develop those institutions that safeguard the freedom of this criticism, that is to say, the freedom of thought” (Popper 432-33).