It wasn’t until well into my University training that evolutionary biology reared its head again (having been indoctrinated into the Catholic educational system at Bellarmine). This time in an evolutionary biology course taught by Father Parnell at an esteemed liberal arts Jesuit University not far from here. It was a rigorous science course complete with mathematical formulas allowing you to predict when evolution was occurring and when it was not. There was no discussion of religion during the 10 week quarter, but it was clearly the elephant in the room. It wasn’t until I returned to Santa Clara 12 years later, and a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology, that I had the opportunity to ask Fr. Parnell how he reconciled his Catholic traditions with evolutionary biology.
He was originally trained as a scientist by one of the great plant evolutionary biologists in California. Only later was Dr. Parnell drawn to the Jesuits by the need to serve the community – something he didn’t get from his scientific career. I knew there was some hope for me as a Christian and an evolutionary biologist when he told me that although he followed modern evolutionary biology, he knew there were things that modern science couldn’t explain – the resiliency of the human spirit, our responsibility to the community, the poor, the oppressed, shepherds of the environment. This was refreshing coming out of 7-8 years in academia, where according to the statistics, approximately 80% of my colleagues considered themselves atheists.
But how does evolution and faith play out on a day to day basis for me? There was a moment during last week’s beautiful garden party that highlights the coexistence of faith and science for me. Sitting there enjoying the beauty of the garden, I saw the blue Irises. Although my attention was initially captured by the beautiful color and shape of the flowers, my thoughts quickly raced to the recent studies showing how these flowers are the products of evolution by natural selection. In their native habitat of Israel, these irises are pollinated by bumblebees. Looking closer at the flowers in the evening, they discovered for the first time that the irises weren’t pollinated in the traditional way. Instead, bees were discovered to use the Iris flower as overnight accommodations, as they tucked in tight between the anthers and the pistil (the male and female reproductive organs in plant). Some creative experiments ensued using models of different colored iris-like flowers. They showed that darker flowers, which warmed up earlier in the mornings, made their bee lodgers warm enough to bumble off earlier to the next flower to collect pollen and nectar and affect reproduction. The darker flowers would receive the first pollination and reproduce better. Therefore, the next generation would consist of more dark flowered irises.
