The Jan. 9, 1995, issue of The Scientist featured two intriguing articles about the relationship between science and religion. Billy Goodman's story ("Religious Scientists Sense The Divine In Their Work," page 1) made the point that these apparently unusual people see no contradiction between their theistic religion and their science. (No one needs to be told that scientists who are atheists see no contradiction between their atheism and their science.) Although the subjects interviewed were diverse in religion and scientific status, the common denominator seemed to be a reluctance to accept the view that evolution, especially human evolution, is a purposeless process.
George Gaylord Simpson wrote in The Meaning of Evolution (revised ed., Yale University Press, 1967), "Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind." That is the orthodox position among evolutionary scientists, who vehemently deny that any supernatural intelligence either ...
