James Watson who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Science and is now an adviser for the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and head of the scientific council of the Champaulimaud Foundation caused quite a stir lastweek when he made direct references suggesting that blacks are less intelligent than whites due to evolution. One of the controversial quotes in his new book of memoirs “Avoid Boring People: Lessons From a Life in Science.” is:

“There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically,” he writes. “Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so.”

Also, he is qouted in  Sunday Times Magazine, that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really.” He claims to hope that everyone is equal, but he counters that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.” He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because “there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level.”

Here we have one of the foremost authorities on DNA in the scientific community in general speaking on matters of science and what is popularly believed to be the foregone conclusion of evolution but people are up-in-arms in disagreement with him and taking offense at his statements…why?

At any other time someone of this scientific caliber speaks on areas of evolutionary research, he is taken as the authority and his theories are accepted as fact. Whyy the outrage this time? It is because it touches on an area near to the emotions. Something within us rails against the notion that members of the human race are less than equal.  These feelings are well warranted. The problem can be found in the term “human race” itself. 

This term naturally extends from the evolutionary view; it is simply an extension of the thinking that all things have evolved from a single source, at varying times, and to varying levels of improvement. In the evolutionary view, it should be completely acceptable to say that whites are more evolved than black or vice versa.  After-all, if we developed from a common ancestor into different environments, it is to be expected that we would evolve at different rates and ultimately into different species altogether. If the evolutionary view were true, the differences between blacks and whites would only grow with time; perhaps in a few hundred thousand years to be completely unrelatable to each other.

Again however, this thinking is flawed at its very premise. It is time we call upon these “scientific authorities” to call into question the very presupposition of evolution they hold so dearly.  We spend our time arguing about things such as distinctions between “races” among humanity when the very premise of different human races is flawed to begin with.  If we don’t get to the real issue, we will find ourselves outraged over things like this.  We cannot accept the “authorities” only when they cut to close to the quick.  We love evolutionary thinking when it divorces our responsibility to God and endorsed our “animalistc” behavior.  Either it is true or not, never-mind the consequences of such thinking.

I suggest that the very fact that we are appalled at the repercussions of the evolutionary  premise points us to the conscience we were all given by our Creator Who knew we would struggle with such questions when we would ultimately deny His existence.