"Evolution and religion: In the beginning" from The Economist

One time could be an accident:

In the second camp are those, including some high up in the Vatican bureaucracy, who feel that Catholic scientists like Father Coyne have gone too far in accepting the world-view of their secular colleagues. This camp stresses that Darwinian science should not seduce people into believing that man evolved purely as the result of a process of random selection. While rejecting American-style intelligent design, some authoritative Catholic thinkers claim to see God's hand in "convergence": the apparent fact that, as they put it, similar processes and structures are present in organisms that have evolved separately.

Twice is a serious error:

But Benedict XVI apparently wants to lay down an even stronger line on the status of man as a species produced by divine ordinance, not just random selection. "Man is the only creature on earth that God willed for his own sake," says a document issued under Pope John Paul II and approved by the then Cardinal Ratzinger.

Let's be clear, "random selection" is not a short-hand for "random mutation and natural selection". If anything, "random selection" is a description of neutral evolution.

Thus, as written, I have to join the camp that believes "that Darwinian science should not seduce people into believing that man evolved purely as the result of a process of random selection" and that "the status of man as a species [is] produced by ... not just random selection". Amen!

So WTF is wrong with the editorial staff at The Economist? They don't seem to actually understand evolution. You can send them an email and explain it to them.

Labels: creationism, Evolution, Molecular evolution