DNA, Nature’s God, and America’s Political Freedom

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On the Discovery Institute’s Evolution News & Views weblog, Stephen C. Meyer unites science, religion, and politics:

Is [Thomas] Jefferson’s belief ["asserting the inalienable rights of human beings derived from 'the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God'"] still credible in light of current science? The decades following Darwin’s publication of Origin of Species saw the rise of “social” Darwinism and eugenics, which suggested that the Jeffersonian principle of intrinsic dignity had been overturned. Taken to heart, Darwin’s view of man does undermine the vision of the Founders. As evolutionary biologist George Gaylord Simpson explained, Darwinism denies evidence of design and shows instead that man is the product of a “purposeless process that did not have him mind.” Fortunately, discoveries in modern biology have challenged this perspective and vindicated Jefferson’s thinking.

—Mike Gray