UF Professor: Evolution And Creation Need Not Be Mutually Exclusive

January 10, 1997

GAINESVILLE — Followers of evolution and creation have been feuding for nearly a century, but the two schools of thought may have more in common than it seems, says a University of Florida history professor.

“Both of these universal theories offer ways of viewing the world. These are two different communities who need to develop some tolerance for each other,” said Betty Smocovitis, whose new book, “Unifying Biology,” explores the evolutionary synthesis movement in the scientific community of the 1930s and 40s.

These two world views are different culture’s ways of dealing with ethical, political and existential questions, Smocovitis said. The unifying stories bring together the members of each community.

“These are narratives, stories told about the world from different cultures,” Smocovitis said. “I can see the similarities between the two, but of course I am aware of the conflict.”

Both theories attempt to explain the beginning of life and are used as ways to identify members of their respective communities, said Smocovitis. Just as creation — the belief that God created all life on Earth in its current form — is one of the central stories in the Bible, evolution has become one of the central stories in science, Smocovitis said.

The evolutionary synthesis movement within the scientific community combined the physical sciences under one umbrella, with the theory of evolution as the base for the modern sciences.

“Science offered a narrative, a unification story,” Smocovitis said. “These types of stories make communities. This unified all the sciences, with biology in the middle of the sciences and evolution as the main cornerstone of biology.

“Evolution is the main belief behind the biological sciences,” Smocovitis said. “The story is told through courses and textbooks, and if the student can not reproduce this story, they flunk, they do not belong in the community.

“The unification theory offered one world view which was secular, progressive, liberal and part of the Enlightenment attempt to unify knowledge,” she said. “This was a way for science to deal with ethical, existential and physical concerns.”

In their origin stories, the two communities attempt to deal with both the shaping of the world and the shaping of their cultures. But despite the theories’ similar aims, their followers continue to disagree.

“Although these communities have similarities, their different world views keep them apart,” said Smocovitis. “In fact, it may be because they are so close that this friction results.”