Deadening the Intellectual Life of the Church, An Example

What is the state of intellectual freedom in the church? Here’s an example that says it may not be as great as we think.

Remember the debate about teaching creationism in science class in the Kansas public schools? Remember all the Catholic high school principals and presidents of Catholic colleges who hit the media to make perfectly clear that there is no conflict between religious belief and teaching evolution in science class, and that Catholic high schools and colleges have been teaching it in biology classes for at least fifty years?

Yeah, I don’t either.

The Catholic voice was curiously absent, like the dog in the Sherlock Holmes story that didn’t bark in the night. Catholics, of all people, have the rich intellectual tradition that illuminates the border between faith and reason. Yet this controversy went on for months with nary a peep from us. I remember  two Catholic voices. One was Cardinal Schonborn, parroting intelligent design philosophy in a New York Times op ed. The other was Father George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory, who rebutted Schonborn and said that evolution was not in conflict with faith. (He was subsequently removed from his position as director of the Vatican Observatory.)

It would have been nice to see some Catholic college presidents or high school principals saying, “Duh, we’ve been teaching this stuff for years.” What kept that from happening? Are we all benumbed, put into a stupor? Do we need a good old-fashioned dose of consciousness-raising? Is that actually going on now? Are we reaching a tipping point?

Tags: intellectual freedom