Musings

Credit Where Credit is Due

You may recall my previous bemoaning of the sorry intellectual state of contemporary American conservatism. I did, however, note that there were a couple of exceptions to the general pattern of cravenness and confusion among the right-wing thinkers and pundits interviewed on the subject of Evolution and Intelligent Design.

Charles Krauthammer and Richard Brookhiser said sensible things. And, now, Krauthammer has written an essay expanding on his response.

How many times do we have to rerun the Scopes “monkey trial”? There are gaps in science everywhere. Are we to fill them all with divinity? There were gaps in Newton’s universe. They were ultimately filled by Einstein’s revisions. There are gaps in Einstein’s universe, great chasms between it and quantum theory. Perhaps they are filled by God. Perhaps not. But it is certainly not science to merely declare it so.

To teach faith as science is to undermine the very idea of science, which is the acquisition of new knowledge through hypothesis, experimentation and evidence. To teach it as science is to encourage the supercilious caricature of America as a nation in the thrall of religious authority. To teach it as science is to discredit the welcome recent advances in permitting the public expression of religion. Faith can and should be proclaimed from every mountaintop and city square. But it has no place in science class. To impose it on the teaching of evolution is not just to invite ridicule but to earn it.

Bravo, Mr. Krauthammer! The weight of redeeming the intellectual respectability of American conservatism appears to rest on your shoulders. I hope you’re up to it.

If you look at this purely as a cynical political move, it will help in the heartlands and people of my ilk care a lot more about Iraq than about textbooks in Kansas.

The inimitable Kung Fu Monkey delivers the smackdown [via James Wolcott, who has his own choice words about the deluded cynicism of Krauthammer and his ilk].