Support for the Darwinian theory comes from unexpected corners of the religious universe. The French Cardinal Paul Poupard suggested ways around "the mutual prejudice" between religion and science earlier this month at a session of theologians, philosophers and scientists in Rome. He finds the Creation story in Genesis as "perfectly compatible" with the Darwinian theory of evolution. Both accept the idea that the universe did not create itself: "Science and theology act in different fields, each in his own." The Roman Catholic Church has never required a literal interpretation of the Bible for belief in the creation, and it has never condemned the Darwinian theory. "The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer," the cardinal says, "just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity."
John Silber, the philosopher who is a former president of Boston University, weighs a defense of both faith and evolution in New Criterion magazine. The Big Bang is not an explanation of the origin of the universe, he argues, unless there is an explanation of "what banged." Without such evidence, there is room for faith. "The critical question posed for evolutionists is not about the survival of the fittest but about their arrival," says Mr. Silber. "Biologists arguing Darwinian evolution have been challenged by critics for more than a hundred years for their failure to offer any scientific explanation for the arrival of the fittest."
Jews, as "the chosen people" of the Old Testament, have always been uneasy with the subject. In the second century, Rabbi Akiva suggested that Jewish sons not only inherited their looks, health and wealth from their fathers, but their "wisdom" as well. Centuries later, Moses Maimonides challenged that notion, arguing that it takes "great exertion" to make us who we are. However, he believed that there is no contradiction between the truths which God revealed and the findings of the human mind in science and philosophy.
The revisionist arguments that connect Darwinism with religion imbue the human spirit with meaning and purpose while accepting scientific facts that accompany the methodical research of science. They don't offer a lot of laughs, but perhaps one joke can be the last word for now.
Two monkeys, a father and a son, are engaged in conversation when papa monkey hands the younger monkey a copy of Darwin's Origin of Species. "Read this, my son," he says. "It will make a man of you."