Evolution or creation-myth and facts

You are well known for expressing your views on controversial matters in a forthright manner and may I take this opportunity to seek your views on an old subject which re-surfaced in the local press.

The subject can be posed in various ways; Darwin or Bible or evolution or creation. A Doctor by the name of VJM De Silva is reported to have declared that Evolution is a Scientific Fiction and not a fact, how do you react to this?

As it happens Dr. V. J. M. de Silva was my senior contemporary, fellow-hosteller and friend at the Colombo Medical School. He has made a cogent polemical case against the authenticity and insensitivity to Christian religious sentiments of the story-line in Dan Brown's controversial novel Da Vinci Code and the film based on it.

Despite his judgment that the book and film are blasphemous of his religion, he regrets the ban imposed on the film in Sri Lanka. Prof. Carlo Fonseka stated on that occasion the same doctor took a swipe at the very foundation of Modern Biology by dismissing organic evolution as scientific fiction.

Citing his respect and affection for V. J. M. De Silva, Prof. Fonseka stated that he should not wish to cross swords with him on any matter, especially because they now have exhausted biblical life spans and ought to rest in peace.

However, the cavalier fashion in which VJM dismisses organic evolution as though it were mere fiction, and the way he selectively quotes Charles Darwin in support of theism and creation, compels him to confront VJM, not so much to refute him but to set the record straight.

Evolution fact

Responding to the remark made by Dr. VJM pontificating that "evolution is not an established fact like physics and chemistry", Prof. Fonseka said that he cannot believe that his friend could have written such an inane and nonsensical sentence. Apparently Dr. VJM has forgotten that physics and chemistry are not "facts" but branches of science.

"So what on earth does he mean by saying evolution is not an established fact like physics and chemistry? It's rather like saying that the Fort Railway Station is not an established fact like history and geography." said Prof. Fonseka setting the facts right.

Supporting his argument further, Prof. Fonseka mentioned the fact that no eminent modern biologist (non-religious or religious) who does not regard the phenomenon of organic evolution as established fact. It is widely accepted by the scientific community as the most intellectually satisfying, evidence based natural explanation hitherto available for the organized complexity and diversity of living things on earth.

In the special introduction Sir Julian Huxley FRS wrote in 1958 to the centenary publication of Charles Darwin's classic on evolution. 'The Origin of Species', he poses the question: Why is the Origin of Species such a great book? His answer is as follows: "First of all, because it convincingly demonstrates the fact of evolution: it provides a vast and well-chosen body of evidence showing that existing animals and plants cannot have been separately created in their present forms but must have evolved from earlier forms by slow transformation...".

These facts are discovered solely by observation. Though it is true that the process of organic evolution cannot be observed even as it occurs in the same way that, say, we can observe (liquid) water changing its physical state to ice (solid) on cooling.

Prof. Fonseka states that the reason for it is that organic evolution is necessarily an extremely slow process, taking place over millions of years. He pointed out this provides some basis for people to assert that "evolution is not established fact" as the phenomenon of one species changing into another has not been directly observed. When, however, the vast body of accumulated evidence in favour of organic evolution is weighed by minds trained in scientific analysis, the reality of evolution emerges as an inescapable fact and a compelling truth.

Prof. Fonseka queries the rationale for believing in creation and that the only reason seems to be the irrational faith in an ancient book which says that it was revealed by God Almighty to a chosen tribe in the Middle East several thousand years ago.

Basis of life

With a countenance of authority and sarcasm, Prof. Fonseka emphasised that though they have not learnt in school, today, every schoolchild knows that all forms of life - people, animals, plants, bacteria and viruses and celebrities - are derived from one common substance called Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid or DNA, the physico-chemical basis of life. A molecule of DNA is made up of just four kinds of building blocks: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C).

From bacteria to baboons to beauty queens, they are all derivatives of various permutations and combinations of AT and GC. On 26 February 2001, TIME magazine, a fairly reliable popularizer of scientific knowledge reported that humans and chimpanzees hares 99 per cent of their DNA.

However, this does not mean, as some misguided people believe, that humans are modified chimpanzees; it only means they were our distant cousins a few million years ago.

He describes the obstinacy of refusing to believe evolution in the face of mountains of evidence in Shakespearean language as - to exhibit "an understanding simple and unschooled" and to be guilty of "a fault to nature".

Geology

Prof. Fonseka recalled a naturalist known as Gosse who was also a strong believer in the Genesis story of the creation. As a naturalist, he was familiar with the geological evidence that pointed to evolution.

He squared the geological evidence with his belief in special creation by assuming that when God created the world from nothing, he did so with fossils of dead animals and plants duly inserted into the geological strata so that from day one, the world seemed to have had a long past history!. This assertion, though it seems irrational can not be proved wrong.

On the other hand, Prof. Fonseka pointed out that Teilhard de Chardin, a geologist, anthropologist and theologian, and his disciple in Sri Lanka, Father Mervyn Fernando, have no problem about accepting evolution and remaining an atheist.

He further emphasised that Dr VJM's faith in the literal truth of the Bible is made of sterner stuff and is evidently cast in the classical mould: credo quia absurdum - (I believe it because it is absurd), "Never an atheist".

Though Dr. VJM refers to the fact that Charles Darwin is on record as having written to a Correspondent that he "has never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of God" per se is true, it is necessary to examine the socio-religious conditions prevailed at the time of the discovery in order to get an insight into the mindset of Charles Darwin.

To get an insight into the state of his mind concerning his religious beliefs, it is necessary to locate him and his discovery of evolution in the religious, social and cultural milieu of the time in which he lived (1809 - 1882).

Candid religious beliefs

Citing religious and social milieu in which Charles Darwin discovered the theory, Prof. Carlo Fonseka pointed out that with a quotation from a 807-page biography of Charles Darwin in 1991 by Adrian Desmond and James Moore, that Charles Darwin expressed his theory in a most appropriate manner in accordance with the prevalent ethos of the day.

Prof. Fonseka stated that the letter from which Dr. VJM has quoted Darwin's remark that 'he has never been an atheist' is contained in Volume I of a three-volume publication titled Life and Letters, published in 1887, five years after the death of Charles Darwin. According to Desmond and Moore, Life and Letters is a "censored, shorn and stitched" work.

It is not so well known that in 1876, that is to say, 6 years before his death, Charles Darwin composed a document meant to be a posthumous message to his family. It was not meant for the public.

It was solely for the family's attention. In it, he was utterly candid about his religious views. In it he says that his belief in "Christianity as a divine revelation" had withered gradually. He declares that he could not "see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true" (Darwin, page 623).

He also says that he was one "with no assured and ever-preset belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence with retribution and reward" (Darwin, page 636). He added, "I think that generally (and more and more as I grow older), but not always, that an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind" (Darwin, page 636).

Concern for wife

Prof. Carlo Fonseka stated that Charles Darwin was so non committal and ambiguous about expressing his religious beliefs. One reason must surely have been his own genuine uncertainty about first and last thing.

Another certainly was his anxiety and determination not to upset his devoted wife who was also passionately devoted to the doctrines of the Church of England" Charles Darwin called her the "best and kindest of wives", and she had presented him with no less than nine children.

Darwin asserted that a man can be "an ardent atheist and an evolutionist" and named the famous writer Charles Kingsley and Professor Asa Gray as examples (Darwin, page 636). The first reviews of The Origin of Species indicated that Charles Darwin had touched a raw nerve in Bible-based Christian England.

A reviewer in the prestigious Athenaeum said that according to Charles Darwin, man was evolved from monkeys and was therefore not immortal. This upset Mrs. Darwin and her distress infuriated Charles. "The manner in which the reviewer drags in immortality and sets the priests at me and leaves me to their mercies is base", Darwin exploded. In the event, the second edition of The Origin of Species included a major concession to Christian belief.

The grand final sentence of the first edition of The Origin of Species went like this: "There is grandeur in this view of life with its several powers having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that while this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved".

Prof. Carlo Fonseka asserted the fact that Darwin inserted the word "by the Creator" in the second edition and all subsequent editions of The Origin of Species, after the word 'breathed' in the final sentence quoted above.

Thus, what was perhaps the greatest discovery in the history of science had been made palatable to the prevailing dominant religious ethos. Charles Darwin died on 19 April 1882. The man who said that revealing his discovery of the fact of evolution was "like confessing a murder" came to be buried in Westminster Abbey.

He was eulogized by the Church for his "ardent pursuit of truth" and as a "true Christian Gentleman" (Darwin, page 675). An old English lady's tribute to Darwin was enchanting: "To be sure, Darwin proved that there is no God. But God is so kind, he will forgive him."

Prof. Fonseka reminded the fact that his interest in Charles Darwin was created by Martin Wickramasinghe who surprised the curator of the Charles Darwin Museum with his vast knowledge of Charles Darwin and had the privilege of browsing the copy of the "Das Kapital" sent Darwin by Karl Marx who wanted to dedicate the book to Darwin.

Wickramasinghe discovered contrary to the widespread belief that Darwin declined the request even without reading the book, that the leaves of the book were separated. (At the time, pages came together and the reader had to separate them).