A Prior Commitment

                                                                                                                                                                         Vol. XXIII, No. 4, April 2010

In our own day, one of the most explicit statements of the philosophical motivation behind Darwinism comes, surprisingly enough, from Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin. In an article arguing for the superiority of science over religion (which he groups with things like UFOs and channeling), Lewontin freely admits that science has its own problems. It has created many of our social problems (like ecological disasters), and many scientific theories are no more than "unsubstantiated just-so stories." Nevertheless, "in the struggle between science and the supernatural," we "take the side of science." Why? "Because we have a prior commitment to materialism.

[Charles Colson & Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live? (Tyndale House, 1999) p. 96.]