But I wrote you back and asked you if you were sure that Mel Mulder could truly be called ‘brilliant’, and if, perhaps, maybe he wasn’t really even a scientist.  You responded that you were pretty confident he was both a scientist, and a brilliant one at that.

I wasn’t satisfied with your answer, so I asked Mel himself.  He said, “[I am] hardly a brilliant scientist.  I'm a retired surgeon with a life-long interest, obsession, regarding theology and science.”  And that, I think, is the point.  You disingenuously make non-scientists appear to have gone through the rigorous life of evolutionary biology.  You are part of an umbrella group that builds institutions and think-tanks.  You build museums filled with dinosaurs living alongside Jesus and Abraham.  You disparage science, telling your congregation, as you told me, that those who believe in evolution have destined themselves…to re-evolve back into the slime from which they believe they came.

Is all of this really necessary, Pastor?  Should pastors really be dabbling in the politics of science?

Two years ago, entomologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson wrote his own letter to a pastor in the form of a popular book called The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth.  His book is an appeal to bridge the gap between science and religion. “What are we to do?” he asks in the conclusion:

He continues,

Forget the differences, I say, meet on common ground.  That might not be as difficult as it seems at first.  When you think about it, our metaphysical differences have remarkably little effect on the conduct of our separate lives.  My guess is that you and I are about equally ethical, patriotic and altruistic.  We are products of a civilization that rose from both religion and the science-based Enlightenment.  We would gladly serve on the same jury, fight the same wars, sanctify human life with the same intensity.  And surely we also share a love of creation.

While walking on Pipeline Road yesterday, we found a wood toad hiding in the road’s gravel.  I crouched down to examine and photograph the tiny creature.  Up close, all amphibians are extraordinary.  This one has bright yellow eyes, like a cat, and colorful bumps and protrusions along his spine.  Evolution, in a way, is the theory that we all come from parents, and that we are a bit different from our parents.  A long, long, long time ago, we shared a common ancestor with this wood toad.