[Islam-Online- North American Affairs]

Recently, the Kansas school board eschewed the theory of evolution in the favor of creationism which gave rise to an interesting debate between the state and the local school boards. Also interesting is the fact that the theory of evolution has become another litmus test, such as abortion, to gauge the views of prospective candidates running for the public offices.

The Issue on the Surface:
The apparent reasons for this tug of war between the Local School Board and the State School board is a jurisdictional one: The state school boards decide what subjects will be covered on the state assessment tests, whereas the local schools control the curriculum and textbooks to be used. However, one of the underlying reasons may be that such a type of debate may have been instigated by the right wing conservative Christians who want to propagate a Genesis-oriented view of the origin of the world. After a recent vote in Kansas the Republican presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole was questioned about her stand on evolution. Ms. Dole dodged the question by emphasizing the strength of her faith but didn't address the heart of the matter, perhaps because of the fear of disapproval from mainstream Americans.
The scientific community is overwhelmingly comprised of non-believers and the cognitive elite of the nation comfortably basks in the shadow of a convenient world-view that this theory provides. The faith in the theory of evolution also helps keep the legitimacy of the Church at bay and consolidates the philosophical foundations upon which the modern world-view rests.
The Real Issue:
The issue here is more than just the devolution of jurisdiction, as conjectured within the policy-making world. Rather, it is symptomatic of a deeper illness that the modern world-view has inflicted upon us by robbing the man off of his primordial connection with God. To legitimize such a position, the weight of the scientific community is thrown behind the evolutionist arguments which talk in terms of millions of years, and thus beyond an accurate possibility of satisfactory scientific testing. Modern science, whose roots lay in Cartesian Dualism and logical positivism, is the ruling paradigm of other such sciences that inform the mainstream philosophical and scientific inquiry.
The theory of Evolution has important ramifications in the lives of lay believers as well as the believing intellectuals. To teach young students in the school about it merely as one of the theories would be one thing, but to teach it as a scientifically proven fact, as it is generally done, would be utterly preposterous.
Modern Science and Truth:
Only since the Seventeenth century have the religion and science been so diametrically opposed to each other. The triumph of the modern science and its intellectual relativism is hostile to the idea of "the Truth". One of the reasons of this opposition and the failure to reconcile the two is a result of ignoring the role of philosophy. Philosophy is the invisible partner of both science and religion and is crucial to their proper understanding of both. It has generally been held that philosophy is the handmaiden of theology. In the contemporary world however, philosophy seems to have become the handmaiden of modern sciences, such as physics and biology.
Nowadays it is widely believed that modern scientific achievements are a result of a disconnection from the medieval sciences. This is not true either. Modern science is still based on medieval sciences but it no longer accommodates the idea of God and the importance of things sacred.
Some Important Implications of the Theory of Evolution:
The theory of evolution cuts the vertical relationship between man and God and possibility of creation. It horizontalizes the process of creation in terms of linearity of time, which cannot be adequately verified. It tries to base its validity on Paleontology, which in fact is this theory's worst enemy as it does not lend reliable data for the inter-species hiatus. Scientific proofs besides, there are important social and ethical ramifications of this theory. If biological progress is slowly incremental overtime and the humans gradually evolve towards their perfect state, then it is logical to assume that their moment of ultimate perfection resides in the future.
The religious worldview however is the opposite. The moment of perfection is not the future but the origin. Not even in the most secular of all societies will someone say that he or she is better than Jesus Christ! Tacitly, the society is aware of this reality but it is not at the center of things as it should be. If we assume for a moment that the future is perfect, then wouldn't it also be logical to say that we are the inferior version of the superior version that is about to come in the future? And if the futuristic improved version of us humans will be free of the present human defects such as lying, cheating, greed and violence, then shouldn't we logically accept lower moral standards because we are not so smart after all? at least not yet! This would also mean that Moses, Christ and Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Them) were not quite as perfect as some of us are already or will be at some point in the future. Thus, the world-view they propagated must also be a faulty and outmoded one and we should abandon it and now develop new and improved ones. Thus 'futurism' becomes the creed of this theory which has a special concatenation with the idea of 'progress': If today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today, then consequentially the moment of true 'progress' is utopian! This also means that no one will ever live a truly 'progressive life' as long as there is possibility of a future.
Conclusion:
It is unavoidable to pursue any meaningful scientific inquiry, either in the realm of politics or in the science of man, without touching upon the nature of Ultimate Reality and the purpose of human existence. It is purposeless to pursue knowledge without the possibility of knowing the truth. Modern scientific inquiry on the other hand, is so engrossed with technological and material advancement with which it measures the extent of human progress, that it is simply not concerned with reaching the Truth and in fact holds the view that truth cannot be known.
Medieval sciences were fully integrated with metaphysics and combined heuristic activity with the Ontological Reality. This gave man a certainty of belief, a chance to pursue life of scientific inquiry without sacrificing or denying its spiritual nature and need. The existence was meaningful and the world-view holistic.
Whatever the main cause may have been behind the debate within the Kansas School board, it is certain that it has recast the Modern world's attention on a debate that needs to be at the center of things but it isn't. The inability of Christianity to deal with the evolutionist theories has resulted in the unpopularity of religion elsewhere. It need not be so. The birth of modern science took place from the cadaver of Christianity in Europe and as a result of it, the plight of the modern man is so obviously pathetic. It is important to mention here that the life of a civilization is tied to its primordial religious traditions and once they die the civilization dies. Perhaps its about time that the elite in the Western world pay more attention to the logical consequences of such theories

Ejaz Akram is the Editor for the political section of the Global Examiner. He is also working on a Ph.D. in International Relations at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC . For feedback, e-mail editor at ejaz@islam-online.net