First published:
Creation
20(1):32
December 1997

Browse this issue

Subscribe to Creation magazine

A Who’s Who of evolutionists

by Don Batten

Some protest that ‘you can believe in God and evolution’, and that evolution does not necessarily exclude God. However, many of these people also believe that evolution explains everything. If ‘god’ had a role at all it was in ‘creating’ the early universe, or causing a big bang in such a way that evolution would operate. In other words, ‘god’s’ part is invisible, not obvious. This clearly contradicts many Bible passages which teach that creation proclaims God’s handiwork and clearly reveals his attributes (for example, Psalm 19:1–4; Romans 1:20).

In effect these protesters are atheistic in their way of thinking. They have evolution, plus ‘god’, but evolution does not need ‘god’, so ‘god’ is totally superfluous in their way of thinking about the world.

If we consider a Who’s Who of those who are most visible in their public promotion and defence of evolution—since World War II, for example—a clear pattern emerges: they are virtually all avowed atheists! Note the names:

• Ernst Mayr, zoologist.

• J.B.S. Haldane, geneticist, who was also a Stalinist.

• Carl Sagan, a promoter of the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and author of the anti-Christian book and movie Contact.

• Isaac Asimov, science fiction writer, signatory to the Humanist Manifesto II, and past president of the American Humanist Association.

• Sir Julian Huxley, first Director-General of UNESCO and signatory to the Humanist Manifesto II.

• Jacques Monod, Nobel Prize-winning biologist, and signatory to the Humanist Manifesto II.¹

The more recent crop of evolutionary proselytisers include:

• Stephen Jay Gould, a Marxist, author of many popular works promoting the evolutionary view.

• Richard Dawkins, author of The Blind Watchmaker and other anti-creationist books, now employed by Oxford University (U.K.) to promote the ‘public understanding of science’ (i.e. evolutionary naturalism).

• Daniel Dennett, author of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea who argues gleefully that evolution eats away all foundations of religion and morality.

• Eugenie Scott, head of the so-called National Center for Science Education which grew out of efforts by secular humanists to oppose creationists.

• Ian Plimer, anti-creationist Australian professor of geology, and Australian Humanist of the Year in 1995.

Many in the above list of overt atheists are strident in their opposition to everything ‘creationist’ and have contributed to publications and court cases opposing creationist ideas. Many promote censorship of creationist views, even exploiting legal loopholes (such as the U.S. Supreme Court’s misapplication of the First Amendment) in attempts to silence creationists.

Even though 39% of scientists in the United States believe in a ‘personal god’,² theistic scientists are conspicuous by their absence from the above lists of public promoters of evolution. Why are atheists at the forefront in promoting evolution?

Atheist Frank Zindler said,

‘The most devastating thing though that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve never were real people the central myth of Christianity is destroyed. If there never was an Adam and Eve there never was an original sin. If there never was an original sin there is no need of salvation. If there is no need of salvation there is no need of a saviour. And I submit that puts Jesus, historical or otherwise, into the ranks of the unemployed. I think that evolution is absolutely the death knell of Christianity.’³

We see, therefore, that evolution is foundational/necessary for their faith that there is no Creator and that everything made itself (i.e. evolution). So, that is why atheists are at the forefront in promoting the public acceptance of evolution—it promotes their atheistic faith. They recognise that if they can persuade the general population to accept evolution as ‘fact’, it will be the death of (real) Christianity.

References and notes

1. The late Theodosius Dobzhansky was also a prominent public promoter of evolution and apparently claimed ‘Russian Orthodox’ affiliation. However, in his 1970 book Mankind Evolving he favourably quoted Teilhard de Chardin, ‘Evolution [not God—DB] is a light which illuminates all facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow’. Earlier, he wrote: ‘Attempts to restrict the concept of evolution to biology are gratuitous. Life is a product of the evolution of inorganic nature, and man is a product of the evolution of life.’ (T. Dobzhansky, Changing man, Science 155:409, 1967). Dobzhansky’s ‘god’ was irrelevant to his view of reality. Return to text.
2. Edward Larson and Larry Witham, Scientists still keeping the faith, Nature 386(6624):435–436, 1997. Return to text.
3. Frank Zindler, American atheist, in a debate with William Craig, Atheism vs Christianity video, Zondervan, 1996. Return to text.