Origin of the Specious: Why do neoconservatives doubt Darwin?
“…those who support the attacks on evolutionary biology may be reasonably suspected of practicing a high-minded hypocrisy. They want to bolster popular morality and preserve social order. Attacking Darwin helps to sustain what Plato regarded as a “Noble Lie”— in this case preserving the faith of the common people in Genesis, and thus the social order.
But perhaps this analysis is too cynical. Perhaps Darwinism really is being challenged by new scientific evidence. In that case, the neoconservative intellectuals would be on the cutting edge of a reassessment of evolutionary biology. Kristol certainly seems to think that Behe’s and Berlinski’s attacks on Darwin have “fractured the dogmatism of the neo-Darwinian synthesis,” and he believes that as a consequence “there is room for metaphysical and theological speculation.” Let’s take a look: