Headmaster’s Weekly Comment: 11/2/13

Sometimes people ask if we teach Creationism or Darwinian Evolution.  The school doesn t really teach either:  We don t teach Evolution the theory that species come into existence, change and disappear by a process of mutation and natural selection – because it is not in the primary school syllabus;  and we don t teach Creationism that God created the heaven, the earth and  its creatures in six periods of twenty-four hours, because we take these grand, mystic stories in the Bible to be allegories rather than literally true.

The idea that Science and Religion are somehow at odds is mostly spurious.  In the context we are considering, this is because Darwinian Evolution doesn t seek to address the existence of a Creator, who may or may not have embedded this mechanism of adaptation into His creatures.  And Scripture mostly seeks to ask Why questions, rather than the How questions of Science.

In fact science tends to abdicate both the fields of philosophy and religion.  Philosophy involves the metaphysical enquiry into existence, consciousness and the ultimate causes of things, and religion delves into the realm of spiritual and moral questions and of the nature of God and how life should be lived.  To illustrate, while science tells us in detail how the internal combustion engine works, it is silent on the character of Henry Ford, or  whether a car should be used in a drive by shooting or to transport a sick child to hospital.  

Darwinian evolution gives a beautiful, elegant and useful hypothesis on the Mechanism of the adaptation of species, while religion enquires into the nature of, and our relationship with, the Mechanic.