Evolution? It’s just a theory…

For thousands of years, the answers to these and other questions were simple enough: it’s all in the Bible, stupid!

But with the advent of modern science, and overwhelming evidence in favour of ‘new’ theories such as evolution and the Big Bang, new answers started to emerge. Some say they are complementary to traditional religious views, which in any case should not be taken literally. Others however are sceptical and sometimes downright hostile towards all but the most literal interpretations of Scripture.

Nowhere is this conflict of ideas more evident than in the issue of evolutionary science, which has pitted biologists against young-earth creationists in a battle for the future of education.

Efforts are now underway to enact this same war here in Malta, which this week hosted a four-day symposium addressed by UK-based ‘creation scientist’ Philip Bell.

Bell, whose declared aim is to export creationism to the rest of the world, made the case that Darwin’s theory of evolution is untrue. Far from descending from ape ancestors, Homo sapiens really was assembled out of dust on the sixth day of Creation, which took place just over 6,000 years ago.

Locally, science pundits are unimpressed. Echoing the views of the Malta Astronomical Society, amateur astronomer Martin Galea Degiovanni makes short shrift of the basic creationist arguments regarding the age of the Universe.

“A young universe of only 6,000 years would question some of the most basic understanding of science,” he observes. “In astronomy, distances are measured in light years (l.y.). That’s equivalent to the distance that light travels in one year. It might sound like a huge distance, and in fact to the human mind it is – exactly 9,460,730,472,580.8 km. Yet on the scale of the known universe this does not even cover the distance to our closest star, which is 4.2 l.y. away.

Galea Degiovanni adds that the closest galaxy to our planet, a satellite of our own Milky Way, is 25,000 l.y. away.

“This means that it takes light 25,000 years to reach us here on Earth. This simple measurement, based on solid scientific observation and knowledge, is already way above the 6,000-year limit. One has to also keep in mind that current telescopes are capable of observing objects up to 12 billion light years away, effectively meaning that the light has been travelling through space for 12 billion years…”

And yet, the view that the entire Universe is less than twice as old as Mnajdra, has already made it into at least one local Evangelical school: aided in part by an apparent reluctance to over-emphasise evolutionary science on the national curriculum.

In fact the study of evolution is currently limited only to O- and A-level Biology classes.

Effectively, this means that most Maltese students will go through their entire schooling without being given a solid grounding in evolution at all.

Dr Kris Zarb Adami, Physics lecturer at the University of Malta and researcher at Oxford, is concerned at this state of affairs.

“The difference between creationism and evolutionary science is that the latter is evidence-based. If we believe that living organisms have evolved from earlier life-forms, it’s because there is a wealth of observable evidence to support that view.”

The same, he adds, goes for other widely accepted theories such as the Big Bang – also rejected by creationism as ‘incompatible’ with the Bible.

On the other hand, faith-based systems do not require any evidence at all. Zarb Adami argues that this can be dangerous, because it can lead directly to injustices.

As an example he cites the accepted model used by the law-courts: “A court will require evidence to convict someone of a crime. Without evidence, innocent people could be convicted on mere ‘belief’ that they are guilty. This in fact has happened in the past, such as when justice systems worked on a faith-based, rather than an evidence-based model. The witchcraft trials of the Middle Ages are a case in point…”

The Council of Europe clearly shares Zarb Adami’s concerns, and in 2007 reminded member states that “the teaching of all phenomena concerning evolution as a fundamental scientific theory is therefore crucial to the future of our societies and our democracies. For that reason, it must occupy a central position in the curriculums…”

The same resolution also urges states to “firmly oppose the teaching of creationism as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution and in general the presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion.”

But it is far from clear whether or to what extent Malta is currently taking this advice. Questions sent to the Education Ministry this week remained steadfastly ignored.

But physicist Dr Edward Mallia agrees that schoolchildren should be given a thorough grounding in evolutionary science.

“I think it’s important on at least two counts. The first is that, in this day and age, there is simply no longer any excuse to doubt the science of evolution, or to pit it against religious belief. I can understand that there were doubts in ages past: at the time when Darwin formulated his theories, there was a lot of guesswork going on. But ever since the discovery of DNA, I would say all that is really behind us now. …”

The second count, he argues, is that it would be a ‘disservice’ to religion to posit literal interpretations of Scripture. “It would be a travesty of religious belief to argue that the two disparate versions of Creation, as described in Genesis 1 and 2, are to be taken literally.”

Pointing out that a human being’s genetic code is 98% identical to that of a chimpanzee, Mallia argues that to doubt evolution today is “to go beyond fundamentalism.”