DARWIN AND DEMOCRACY

by Philip Kitcher

When Charles Darwin died in 1882, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, against the wishes of his family. His memorial, placed under Newton's, testifies both to the acceptance of the theory of evolution and to the confidence of the Anglican Church that that theory, rightly understood, posed no problems for religious belief. A century and a quarter later, both judgments are in dispute: the architects of "Intelligent Design Theory" proclaim that they have a superior alternative to Darwinism, and the millions of worried people whom they recruit to their cause campaign for revision of the science curriculum so that their children will not be indoctrinated in godlessness.

I believe that the continued opposition to Darwin, so different from the soothing rhetoric that accompanied his burial, is a symptom of much deeper diseases. It signals, on the one hand, our failure to resolve the complex issues surrounding the relationship of scientific knowledge and religious faith, and, on the other, the difficulties of democracy when different groups of citizens subscribe to different standards of evidence. I will attempt to explain both these connections.

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