Mail & Guardian (South Africa), page 28
02 Nov 2007
Your story last week about the teaching of evolution in schools refers. There are only two ways known to us in which new species could have appeared on Earth — either fully formed by miraculous, instant creation or by evolutionary change in older species. Religious groups that accept the first method are “creationists” who believe their creation stories are literally true.
But creationists can study evolution without believing what they read. Our Bill of Rights confers freedom of religious belief on every citizen, and life sciences teachers must respect this freedom.
Other religious groups, such as the Catholic Church, accept findings about evolution and concern themselves with the human soul. Such faiths view their creation stories as allegories, symbolic of God’s creation.
Many evolutionary biologists are adherents of these religions, and religious people who accept evolution have a range of personal beliefs about God’s role in the evolutionary process.
Charles Darwin, for instance, was a creationist during the voyage of the Beagle. He later became an evolutionist and abandoned creationism, but remained religious for many years.
