For about a century Creationists have been trumpeting the imminent demise of evolution. It’s a bit like claims of the Second Coming of Christ… It’s always coming real soon! Needless to say, their prognostications have always failed, and evolutionary biology has grown into a healthy field of science. I became interested in evolution largely due to David Attenborough’s Life on Earth, and I have read avidly on the subject and related fields ever since.

A few years back, that interest led me to do a little reading on the nature of consciousness, reading books by Daniel Dennett, Susan Blackmore, Nicholas Humphrey and others. I wondered why the scientific exploration of our minds didn’t get Creationists even more upset than evolution. I also wondered why parasitology didn’t get them worked up, but the idea of critters crawling around our intestines and even our brains isn’t relevant to this post (despite evidence parasites may modify our behaviour). The real enemy of Creationism is “materialism”, or, more correctly, methodological naturalism. The idea that we could explain the human mind using naturalistic science seemed that it should be far more threatening to their world view.

The first time I noticed anything from Creationists on the neuroscientific front was the ramblings of Michael Egnor, a neurosurgeon with some rather wacky ideas about the way the mind works. His work was trashed by many, especially over at the Panda’s Thumb, where jokes about “Egnorance” became commonplace. Egnor quickly became associated with the Discovery Institute, the most prominent ID propaganda group. Other dualist/anti-materialist voices also spoke up, and hooked up with the Discovery Institute.

The vast majority of the Discovery Institute’s hacks are conservative Christians and Creationists (there are a couple of exceptions, such as Michael Behe – a confused Roman Catholic who accepts common descent but thinks God triggers the mutations upon which natural selection acts). The Discovery Institute’s Wedge Strategy, which reveals their true agenda, includes this statement:

Discovery Institute’s Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies. Bringing together leading scholars from the natural sciences and those from the humanities and social sciences, the Center explores how new developments in biology, physics and cognitive science raise serious doubts about scientific materialism and have re-opened the case for a broadly theistic understanding of nature. The Center awards fellowships for original research, holds conferences, and briefs policymakers about the opportunities for life after materialism.

A recent opinion piece in New Scientist, Creationists declare war over the brain by Amanda Gefter, talks about the growing Creationist/Intelligent Design attempt to attack neuroscience. She discusses the role of the Discovery Institute in marshalling a group of scientists who disagree with the naturalistic view of the mind which, rightly, dominates the field of neuroscience.

Steve Novella, from the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, has probably spent more time debunking the claims of Michael Egnor than anyone else. Novella’s posts about Egnor on Panda’s Thumb and other places were always a great read. In response to the New Scientist piece, Novella has a couple of posts on his blog:

• Reports of the Demise of Materialism are Premature Part 1
• Reports of the Demise of Materialism are Premature Part 2

It’s interesting to see neuroscience is getting more attention from the whackaloons. It’s an area in science that is still in its early phases, and much is yet to be learnt. There are many gaps in our knowledge into which the Creationists can try to push their God of the Gaps. As we learn more about the workings of the human mind, light will be cast into those gaps, and the retreat of that God will result.

The God of the Gaps is bad theology, and it’s bad science – be that science evolutionary biology, neuroscience, or any other field.