As further proof of evolution, the chimp is behaving exactly like his distant relatives, the adminsitrators of Calvin College

I don’t know what the exact point is that marks where a religious school’s departure from legitimate adherence to its core beliefs metastasizes into a nuisance to society and civilization by affirmatively encouraging life-crippling ignorance. I do know, however, that Michigan’s  Calvin College has passed that point.

Two religion professors at Calvin wrote scholarly papers suggesting that new discoveries in genetics and evolution raised questions about the literal reading of Genesis that could no longer be brushed aside. Neither professor questioned the existence of God or the role of their church, but they argued that the findings of rigorous, modern science may require a theological re-examination of literalist Biblical teachings. Readers of The Banner, the publication of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, promptly blew a Biblical gasket:

“To protect the church and college from false teachers and contrary orthodox beliefs it would be right to let these guys go,” said one commenter. “Clearly, professors who deny the scriptures as interpreted by our creeds and who have broken the promise they made when they signed the Form of Subscription should be fired,” said another. From yet another: “Why is it that so many Christians and academics in Christian colleges seem more concerned about keeping in step with what the world teaches than they are about what God’s Word teaches? Are we ashamed of God’s Word in the face of the beliefs of our worldly peers?”

Calvin investigated the two professors, and as a consequence one of them, John Schneider, resigned the tenured position he had held for 25 years, as part of a settlement with the college. The other religion professor, Daniel Harlow, is fighting efforts to remove him. The joint statement from Schneider and Calvin says that the parties mutually agreed that Schneider should leave Calvin because tensions caused by his scholarship were threatening to create “harm and distraction.” The school’s statement praised Schneider’s commitment to the college, but said that his “recent and proposed scholarly work addressing issues in genetic science and Christian theology, as they relate to human origin, have engendered legitimate concerns within the college community and its constituencies.”

What’s going on here? Galileo, essentially. A religious institution, rather than face the fact that the progress of human knowledge has rendered its literal reading of the Bible as not merely impossible, but ridiculous and dangerous, is  holding its breath until it turns blue, sticking its fingers in its ears and throwing a tantrum, with the two professors as the targets.  For a school to do this…an institution dedicated to advancing knowledge rather than suppressing it—is beyond defending.

Schneider was, in fact, trying to do Calvin a favor, by opening a dialogue that could lead the school out of the 16th century and rescue its students from a lifetime of confusion. The professor presented his recent  epiphany on evolution in a lecture at Baylor University and then published it in “Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith,” a journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, an organization of Christian scientists who seek to reconcile their research and their faiths. Schneider knew that Calvin requires that faculty members must affirm that “the Bible is the authoritative, Spirit-breathed Word of God, fully reliable,” and that “God, the almighty creator of a good world, is sovereign over all of creation, granting to human beings, made in his image, the responsibility of caring for this world.” But he is also a teacher, and a seeker of truth. Once scientific evidence dictated that the school’s denial of evolution rendered its orientation impossible, he was right to raise the issue and challenge dogma.

Schneider has said that the scientific developments that raised the greatest questions for him have come out of the recent breakthroughs in genetics, which he said strengthened the evidence for evolution and raised specific questions about the accuracy of Genesis. His most controversial views were his expressed doubts that there were only two original humans, Adam and Eve, a fable that DNA evidence conclusively disproves. This is the problem with denying evolution, for it is the foundation of other disciplines of science, including biology, genetics, geology, anthropology, biochemistry and even astronomy. Is it possible to understand the world adequately without accepting evolution as fact? No. Is it irresponsible for an institution of higher education to send graduates into the world who are incapable of that understanding?

Yes.

Calvin is preparing students for an existence that may see them writing dismaying letters like this one, from a perplexed mother to a child-raising website. Her neighbor had given her son a toy dinosaur, she said:

“I am a little shocked. She says she is a Christian, but the Bible doesn’t say anything about dinosaurs. Should I let him keep them, as long as he understands that dinosaurs aren’t real? Even the PBS shows that he watches talk about dinosaurs and evolution, and how the scientists found these “bones” but the Bible doesn’t say that God ever created them, and the earth is only 6,000 years old, not old enough to have “bones” that they say are MILLIONS of years old! I know that Satan tries to trick us in many ways, and this is one way that he tries to fool man into believing that there isn’t a God who created the universe. How can they be bones when they are made out of ROCKS? I told my son that dinosaurs are one of Satan’s many ways of tricking man, and he must talk to God before he plays with them. Am I handling this right? My first 3 were all girls, and I adopted boys, and lots of mothers tell me that boys are often attracted to these dinosaurs. So I don’t know what to do. Is this just harmless fantasy play for him, or should I be worried that he may go on to believe in things like evolution?“

Schneider and Harlow courageously  gave Calvin a chance to work toward a time when no graduates leave the school thinking this way, and the school has chosen to persecute them as their reward. They also were trying to perform a service for all religion, for desperate fictions like the claim that Satan is planting dinosaur bones just makes all faiths seem archaic and idiotic.

In the 21st Century, a college that intentionally and stubbornly endorses ignorance and rejects science should not be regarded by any employer as a serious, respectable institution. A Calvin degree should dictate automatic rejection in the job market for any graduate, and the school, as quickly as possible, should be made to shut its doors, permanently, for the protection of the young minds it is determined to warp. It is a disgrace that this country’s grammar schools allow any one to reach adulthood and write a letter like the one above. For a college whose motto is “Minds in the making” to encourage it is intolerable.