Today Is Darwin Day

Today is Darwin Day-- the the 107th birthday of Charles Darwin. Events marking the occasion are planned around the world. Hundreds of Christian churches throughout the country are marking today as Evolution Sunday. Organizers have obtained signatures of 10,000 clergy on a letter supporting the compatibility of Christianity with evolution. The letter reads in part:

[T]he timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as "one theory among others" is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God's good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God's loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

In a related development, in Ohio last Tuesday, 23 of the 32 scientists on the state's Science Content Standards Advisory Committee sent a letter to Governor Bob Taft urging the state school board to repeal portions of its science standards and lesson plans. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported on the letter that said current state guidelines undermine evolution by urging teachers to "critically analyze" the theory.