Do Evolution Deniers Believe Their Own Rhetoric or Moral Claims?

One of the most common objections which creationists offer against evolution is that teaching evolution will teach children to devalue the humanity of others. It is alleged that only teaching biblical creationism, and that every human being was created in the image of God, will instill in children the proper respect for the rights and persons of other human beings. Teaching that they are evolved from other animals, in contrast, will teach them to be animals.

So, just how well do conservative, evangelical Christians live up to this themselves?

We can get an idea by looking at the case of one Christian who actually did — a Christian who actually used this particular teaching to inspire him to do the right thing when faced with a difficult ethical conflict. Lt. Col. V. Stuart Couch was a veteran prosecutor who was given the task of building a criminal case against a prisoner at Guantanamo. Couch was convinced the prisoner was guilty and deserved the death penalty, but there was just one problem: too much evidence had been obtained through torture. Couch, a devout Christian, had to choose between pursuing a legal case based on torture and prosecuting a man he was sure was guilty of multiple murders.

By May 2004, Col. Couch had most of the picture relating to Mr. Slahi's treatment, and faced a painful dilemma: Could he seek a conviction based on statements he thought were taken through torture, as permitted by President Bush's November 2001 military commission order citing a "state of emergency?" Or was he nonetheless bound by the Torture Convention, which bars using statements taken "as a result of torture...as evidence in any proceedings."

The convention says "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever" can be cited to justify torture, which it defines broadly. The 1994 federal statute implementing the treaty contains additional definitions, including the "threat of imminent death" or "severe physical pain or suffering," as well as the actual or threatened use of "mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality."

Col. Couch was uneasy over interfering with plans to try Mr. Slahi, given the detainee's history. He turned to others with his dilemma, including Marine lawyers he knew and his wife's two brothers -- one a Protestant theologian, the other a retired Marine infantry officer. Because of the classified nature of the information, Col. Couch didn't give them specifics about the case, and spoke only in generalities. Their advice conflicted.

"He wanted to be a good solider and yet on the other hand felt his duty to his God to be the greatest duty that he had," recalls Bill Wilder, director of educational ministries at the Center for Christian Study, Charlottesville, Va. "He said more than once to me that human beings are created in the image of God and as a result we owe them a certain amount of dignity."

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Couch knew that the information obtained was illegal, but that wasn't what caused him to make the final decision to refuse to go forward with the case. What finally did it for him was facing his own Christian conviction that every human being is created in the image of God and thus must be treated with dignity. It's arguably unfortunate that it took him a while to remember this and apply it to this case, but it would be unfair not to recognize how much of a dilemma this must have been for him.

What's particularly interesting about this, though, is that more Christians have not reached the same conclusion. Couch is not alone, to be sure, but he's more alone than he should be. Christians are more likely than secular Americans to say that torture is often justified, and less likely to say that torture is never justified. Christians who really believe the rhetoric about every human being as created in the image of God would never consider torture justified, much less "often justified."

Christians who argue against the science of evolution on the basis of the claim that it denies we are all created in the image of God, thus leading to bestial behavior, should be asked what they think about torture. If they accept torture as a legitimate practice and thus part company with Col. Couch, then it's clear that they don't really believe what they are saying — obviously they consider bestial behavior acceptable despite claiming to believe that all humans are created in the image of God. Frankly, though, I doubt you'll find too many agreeing with Couch here.