Is the Supernatural Natural?
Now there’s a question that can only be answered on a number of levels.
The Boston Globe has a piece on the fanatical “Darwinist” Daniel Dennett, whom it describes as: “A Tufts philosopher and famed Darwinist [who] wants us to study religion like any other human behavior — as a ‘natural phenomenon.’ ”
Dennett, the article says, “has a prophet’s beard, one corner of which he will sometimes fold into his mouth for a ruminative chew, and he is one of Darwinian theory’s foremost promoters.”
He sees it not just as an explanation for the origin of species, but for the fundamental whys and hows of human habits, beliefs, thinking, and desires. The logic of evolution, Dennett wrote in his 1995 book, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, is a ”universal acid,” it ”eats through just about every traditional concept, and leaves in its wake a revolutionized worldview.”
When federal Judge John E. Jones III ruled that intelligent design (I.D.) could not be taught in a Pennsylvania school district, scientists and “humanists” saw the decision as a victory not only for the separation of church and state, but for science.
Daniel Dennett is no great believer in respectful noninterference, and in his new book, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Viking), he argues vehemently against it.
Religion, Dennett says, is human behavior, and there are branches of science to study human behavior. ”Whether or not [Gould] was right,” Dennett told me in his office at Tufts University, where he is director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, ”and I don’t think he was, I’m not making a claim that he would disagree with. I’m not saying that science should do what religion does. I’m saying science should study what religion does.”
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