Science vs. Religion
As evolutionary thinking came to the United States, it inevitably came into conflict with conservative Christian teaching, particularly among evangelical protestants. For those who took their Bible literally, evolution was clearly a threat. The clearest statement of this conflict can be found in a series of pamphlets containing over 100 individual articles published between 1905 and 1915. Entitled The Fundamentals, these pamphlets were distributed by the millions in an effort to stem such evils as “modernism” (academic biblical criticism) and to reaffirm the centrality, inerrancy, and authority of the Bible. The modern term “fundamentalist” comes directly from reference to these works. Not surprisingly, evolution was a target for The Fundamentals. It received attention in at least three separate articles: “The Decadence of Darwinism”, “The Passing of Evolution”, and “Evolutionism in the Pulpit” (and, by the way, so did Catholicism: “Is Romanism Christianity?” and “Rome: the Antagonist of the Nation”). Nevertheless, the fundamentalists reserved their harshest criticism for “modernism”, also known as “the higher criticism”. The higher criticism was a label for the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation that had emerged from Germany in the 19th century. This method saw the Bible as written in particular times and places and, because of this, needed to be interpreted in light of these facts. Needless to say, any question about the inerrancy of the Bible, from history or science, outraged biblical literalists. Works like The Fundamentals, and T.T. Martin’s Hell and the High Schools stirred a growing opposition in many Americans who were told they were going to have to choose between science or their Bible.
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