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Darwin’s Great-Great-Grandson Has an Excellent Idea

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The Republican debate coming up September 16 on CNN is guaranteed to be…lively, which is why ad prices are reported to be running $150,000-plus per 30-second spot. Well, good. ENV is a non-partisan news source but we do enjoy high-quality TV entertainment of any political persuasion.

High-quality science, too, which is why a notion being floated by none other than Charles Darwin’s great-great-grandson, Matthew Chapman, is of interest. It comes in an overlong Newsweek article, “It’s Time for Presidential Candidates to Talk About Science,” replete with the usual guff (“Today, evolution is settled science”).

Chapman is a “British-born American author and screenwriter.” I’d never heard of him before. An accompanying photo shows him “speak[ing] with a television reporter about the Dover Intelligent Design trial, in Harrisburg, Pa.” Here is what reporter Nina Burleigh calls his “grand idea” — science debates!

Every four years, American presidential candidates should have one debate solely about science. [Chapman] enlisted fellow author and screenwriter Shawn Otto, author of a book on the history of science in American politics, and together they founded Science Debate. They rounded up 28 Nobel laureates, 108 college and university presidents, the National Academy of Sciences and a long list of artists, writers and industry leaders, and commissioned research and polling to examine how presidential candidates talk about science. They also invited candidates to a debate in 2008 and got ignored, twice.

This election cycle, Chapman and his advisory board — which includes heavyweights such as Norm Augustine, a past CEO of Lockheed, and former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson — believe they have a better chance. They are working with the National Geographic Channel and Arizona State University to again attempt to stage and broadcast a presidential science debate. Darwin’s descendant says he’s not discouraged by previous failures to get the likes of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders to explain how they’d incorporate science into White House decision-making. “I believe that there will come a time when it will seem as odd for a candidate not to attend a debate on science as it would now seem odd for one not to attend a debate on foreign or domestic policy or the economy,” he says.

That actually is a grand idea. Burleigh observes:

With few exceptions — Al Gore, Newt Gingrich — modern American presidential candidates rarely discuss science. The Founding Fathers, though, were devoted to the scientific method, and science was at the heart of the national idea. On July 4, 1776, as the Declaration of Independence was being adopted, Thomas Jefferson was recording local temperatures as part of a research project.

She neglects to mention that Jefferson argued for intelligent design, but let that pass. More:

Stories about Ben Franklin’s experiments with lightning and the kite are well-known. The founder of the Smithsonian, America’s greatest museum and first scientific institution, was a British scientist. Like many others in his field, he believed the new democracy across the Atlantic would produce great scientific advances.

America did become the global leader in science and technology. But 239 years after the founding, many Americans, and many of our elected leaders, suspect scientists and distrust their conclusions.

The point is a good one. Many Americans are skeptical that certain philosophical or ideological ideas are being sold to them in the name of “science.” Some of those ideas have policy ramifications, others don’t. But even the ones that don’t, do have profound worldview consequences. I think a forum for arguing about science, as a regular feature of presidential races, would be very appropriate and welcome.

Yes, indeed, ask about Darwin! Stephen Meyer has suggested some possible answers to the question “Do you believe in evolution?” and I have offered a response in the event that Bobby Jindal is asked about his state’s academic freedom law, the Louisiana Science Education Act.

The origins of life and of complex biological features, unlike the issue of whether teachers should be free to expose students to credible if controversial science, don’t bear directly on the job expectations of any elected officials I can think of. But having weighed the science of evolution and the ultimate questions it poses is a requirement for anyone who aspires to be a serious person.

Frankly, a well-informed answer that rejects design in favor of Darwin should commend a candidate over a flip reply that comes down on either side. Darwin promoters like Richard Dawkins do not seem to have such a response — so if a politician could tell me why he’s not impressed by design arguments, in just a little bit of detail, I would be impressed.

It’s reasonable to want your President to be a thoughtful individual. The leader of the free world should have given some consideration to where the natural world comes from. Good luck, Mr. Chapman, with your fine proposal!

Image: Matthew Chapman, by Sgerbic (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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