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COPYRIGHT 2003 Natural History Magazine, Inc.
The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox: Mending the Gap between Science and the Humanities by Stephen Jay Gould Harmony Books, 2003; $25.95
My most vivid memories of Stephen Jay Gould date back to December 1981. The place was Little Rock, Arkansas, and the scene was a courtroom where evolution was under attack by so-called scientific creationists. The two-year interregnum in Bill Clinton's five-term gubernatorial leadership was at its midpoint, and had left the state with a governor whose surprise at gaining office was matched only by his inadequacy for the post. The creationists had managed to get the Arkansas house and senate to pass a bill mandating the teaching of both evolution and Genesis in publicly funded school biology classes, and the governor had signed it into law. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) immediately sprang into action to have the law declared unconstitutional, arguing an unwarranted breach of the separation of church and state. Steve and I served as expert witnesses, testifying that evolution is genuine science and that creationism is old-time religion.
In the end the ACLU won the case handily, but at first things were tense. The state's attorney-general hammered away at the pro-evolution witnesses and, as happens in these cases, a certain amount of mud was thrown, and some of it stuck. But by the end of the third day it was clear that we were starting to come out on top. The Arkansas schoolteachers proved to be the most impressive witnesses of all, simply by demonstrating why they could never teach Genesis as biology, no matter what their religious beliefs. (As I remember the episode, all of them were Christians.)
That evening all the ACLU supporters--lawyers, expert witnesses, hangers-on--were relaxing in one of the superb restaurants of Little Rock. A lot of wine was drunk. Then the singing began--instigated by some rather angelic-looking law clerk. The only songs most of us knew in common were the Christian hymns of our childhood, so that was the way we went. And I'll never forget Steve Gould--Harvard professor, secular Jew, eminent evolutionist--belting out "Amazing Grace," especially those lines about being in heaven and praising God's grace for the first ten thousand years, at which point: "We've no less days to sing God's praise/Than when we'd first begun."
For me those recollections epitomize what Stephen Jay Gould was all about: First, that he was there at all--many other prominent figures, beginning with Carl Sagan, had been too busy to take time out to go to the South and fight the creationists. But Steve felt it was his public duty, and he never gave it another thought. Second, that...
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