(Avoid) vain babblings, . . . science
falsely so called. (1 Timothy 6:20)
When in their own sweet time all species tend
To overpropagate, then comes the end
For many individuals who find
That they are not among the fittest kind;
For as resources then are limited,
Survivors are those born to get ahead,
Selected through genetic variation
(Always occurring during procreation
And as mutations randomly arise);
Genetic change can be a nice surprise
If it's adaptive, giving the advantage,
In hard or changing times, to lines that manage,
By this genetic edge, and so survive;
And since it is the fittest left alive,
They will, of course, leave far more progeny
Than could the less adapted; there will be
Successive generations who receive
Those advantageous genes, and will conceive
Recombinations of their own; and so
Life keeps adapting as the ages go
Along, as reproduction, variation,
Environment, and time bring the creation
Of constant evolutionary change.
As Charles Darwin saw, it's nothing strange,
This process he called natural selection; 1
Though it gave Western thought a new direction,
His theory seemed so simple even then:
When Huxley finished Darwin's Origin
Of Species back in 1859,
He shook his head and said his famous line,
"How stupid that I didn't think of that!" 2
And evolution still is where it's at,
The central theory in biology, 3
Though it seem no two scientists agree
On mechanisms. Darwin couldn't say
What causes variation, in his day
Our DNA (the genes) was still unknown;
The science of genetics later on
Was born, to merge with Darwin's theory: this
Is what was called the "modern synthesis." 4
Questions remain, but what they're asking now
Is not if things evolve but only how; 5
For fossils, studies in molecular
Biology, genetics--all concur
With what is clear from gross anatomy,
That Darwin, though there's still much mystery
Surrounding evolution, brought to light
A basic truth, he had the premise right:
"All have descended from a common source,"
As Darwin summarized, "and in the course
Of that descent have all been modified." 6This theory, though, has often been decried.
That's why one April day I started out
For Dayton, Tennessee, to see about
A strange phenomenon of which I'd read.
It's called "creation science," 7 which is said
By its proponents (who all hold the view
That everything the Bible says is true)
To show that this world's only been around
About ten thousand years, 8 and all is found
As God designed it, nothing has evolved--
And if you don't believe it you're involved
In what they call a "monstrous lie of Satan." 9
And so evolved my pilgrimage to Dayton:
I'd pay the fee, I didn't want to miss
A seminar called "Back to Genesis," 10
Which I was hoping would enlighten me
On how these folks can really claim to be
Purveyors of true scientific knowledge.The seminar was held at Bryan College,
Named after William Jennings Bryan, 11 who
Helped prosecute John Scopes for teaching to
The youth of Dayton Darwin's evil thought. 12
The trial was some creation, even brought
In Clarence Darrow for defense of Scopes.
Cruel Darrow left poor Bryan on the ropes,
But Scopes was then found guilty anyhow. 13
But that's all ancient history. I now
Will tell you of the scientists whom I
Met on the way to Bryan College. Why
The tales herein were told I'll say as well.
But names, I'm sad to say, I cannot tell,
For each has asked for anonymity
About this trip to Dayton, Tennessee.There was a fine ASTRONOMER who came,
A splendid talker. No one I could name
Could wring more out of dust, a ball of gas,
Or empty space. He searched for missing mass,
Black holes, and pulsars, using infrared
And gamma rays. All things evolve, he said,
Most elements forged by the early stars.
For sights he much preferred Neptune or Mars
To Dayton. He was no creationist.There also was a PALEONTOLOGIST
(A specialist in fossils). He felt right
At home in Dayton, like some fossil site
Revivified. He went to where the trial
Was held, the old courtroom itself (a smile
He wore as he stood right where Darrow spoke),
And to the drugstore where John Scopes, a Coke
In hand, had first agreed to take the rap
Designed to put that small town on the map. 14
Our fossil man seemed sad, though, later on;
He had to leave without a single bone.There was a BIOCHEMIST on the scene
Who'd come to life if some protein or gene
Popped up in conversation. Otherwise
It took a lightning bolt to catalyze
Him--either that or mention of the word
"Creationism," then you really heard
From him on pseudoscience. Make a rule,
He said: "No Genesis in public school. 15
Comparative religion can be taught,
But not creation as scientific thought."
He had the Constitution right, I think.
"Mix church and state," he said, "you'll have a stink
And toxic fumes!" He knew the chemistry
Of life, and of a free society.There traveled a COSMOLOGIST with us.
Her temper was explosive. She would fuss
About some Tryon who thinks all creation
May only be a vacuum fluctuation. 16
She told about a fellow, too, named Guth
(Whom I don't think much closer to the truth)
Who says that all our universal trouble
Is bound up in some kind of little bubble. 17
I asked her if she thought the man was lyin'.
"No," she replied, "you can't blame Guth for Tryon."Now there were others--a GEOLOGIST,
A rather earthy guy; a PHYSICIST
Who thought the cosmos might have been designed; 18
A PALEOANTHROPOLOGIST who pined
For older women; a BIOLOGIST
Who said life's not defined but she could list
A lot of things about it--even some
Who, like me, were not scientists, who'd come
To hear this gospel called creationism.
From Buffalo, hotbed of humanism, 19
Came a PHILOSOPHER. A Bible SCHOLAR
Who came along had made more than a dollar
By claiming several people and not Moses
Wrote Genesis 20--that tweaked a lot of noses
Down in the Bible Belt.No more of this,
A word now on that "Back to Genesis"
Confab. Who put it on? Now let me warn ya:
There is a group (once based in California,
Now Texas), the Institute for Creation Research, 21
That preaches (though it says it's not a church)
What it calls "creation evangelism," 22
And claims a "great hydraulic cataclysm"
Occurred about four thousand years ago, 23
The big deluge that Sunday schoolers know
As Noah's flood; it claims this flood occurred
Just as it's told in God's "inerrant" Word.
Now some may ask: how does this inundation
Relate to evolution and creation?
Why are these folks, in fact, so agitated
When science says "evolved" and not "created"?
Do these two concepts rule out one another?
Must there be "war," 24 one side against the other,
As says the ICR (abbreviating
The Institute that had us congregating
In Dayton)? Why can't we contend, if we've
A mind to, what in fact I still believe,
That there could very well exist a God
Who first created life--be it from sod,
From clay, or from some gooey gob of slime--
Then let it go evolving over time?
Is that offensive to one's dignity?
To mine it's not, it doesn't bother me.Such questions, though, are ones that we explored
In Dayton. After finding room and board,
We travelers had all agreed to meet
At Robinson's, that drugstore down the street
Where Scopes first planned his crime. There over Cokes
We chatted, heard a few old silly jokes--
"One time a bull met this young brontosaur"--
Then to the subject of that seminar
We turned. Each one within our party duly
Offered a tale (each one except yours truly,
I listened, taking notes), a summary
Of what's known in that person's specialty
Regarding evolution and creation.
So what I offer now is each summation
That I was pleased to hear (as best I can
Remember it); that's really all I plan."But wait," you may be saying, "what about
The seminar?" I won't be leaving out
The stuff we heard, I'll cover that and more.
These tales, it's true, were told the day before
The seminar, but things at that event
Were things we'd heard, you see, before we went,
The subjects covered were the very ones
That we had dealt with down at Robinson's;
Creationists have standard arguments
They keep repeating--none makes any sense--
Such as that radiometric dating
Is unreliable 25 (invalidating
Nuclear physics); their fallacious saw
That evolution contradicts the law
Of entropy; 26 or there's no fossil known
That's intermediate (they've missed a bone
Or two with that!). 27 All evidence they lack,
You'll note, that's for creation, they attack
The Darwin side instead--though a new line
Some push now is "intelligent design" 28
(Hume's spinning in his tomb!): 29 ID invokes
No God (that's what we're told by ID folks),
Just some designer. (Who is that, pray tell?)
These things will be discussed and more as well
In the summations you're about to read.
To speak more, then, of Dayton there's no need,
The seminar turned out to be a bore.
And who wants revelation, nothing more?
Give me some wild new theory any day.
No theory you will find in what they say
When pure young-Earthers meet--no mystery,
All is explained by acts of deity
As fossilized in one inerrant book.
That's science?Now at Robinson's we took
Our seats, got Cokes, and then it was agreed
That they would alphabetically proceed--
Though not by name, for each of them preferred,
As I have said before, that not a word
Get out about this trip. (They had the fear
That they would make the seminar appear
To be real science, meriting one's credence,
When they knew what it was: one more impedance
To science education.) Tales would be
Told in the order of one's specialty.
Though Darwin dealt with life, our tales would range
Beyond, for only one thing cannot change,
That's natural law. All science tells a tale
Of evolution on a cosmic scale.
So April, Dayton, Coketime, there we were;
The first to speak was the Astronomer.