Divine Modesty

Although scientists are commonly labeled as a class of atheists and agnostics, a great many of them, as a matter of fact, retain the major tenets of the religion in which they were reared. It is not uncommon to hear a scientist speaking on evolution--if indeed one is in the habit of being present at such occasions--begin his lecture with such words as these: "Evolution, with the body of scientific data which now supports it, is no longer a theory, but is an established fact in regard to life. It is not to be confused with Darwinism; for Darwin furnished only a crude and in some respects erroneous hypothesis: a suggestive hypothesis which, elaborated, verified and altered, has led to modern concepts of evolution. To accept the fact of evolution is not necessarily to give up one's belief in God. Science describes how natural laws operate, but does not deny that God established those laws and ordered the universe as it is." There is a far cry, however, from this rather typical, passive acceptance of religion by many scientific men to the active interpretation of the relation of religion and science enunciated by a Negro Scientist. Dr. George W. Carver, son of slave parents, teacher at Tuskegee Institute, member of the Royal Society of Arts (London), recipient in 1923 of the Spingarn Medal (given annually to "the American man or woman, of African descent, who contributes the highest achievement in any field of human endeavor") was addressing the Women's Board of Domestic Missions of the Reformed Church. He was describing the achievements which had won him his honors -- the derivation of 100 by-products of the sweet potato ("including rubber, coffee, candy, dyes, paste, paint, starch, vinegar, ink, shoe-polish, molasses") and 150 by-products of the peanut. In so doing he declared : "I have never used a book in my laboratory. Neither have I a great mind. These discoveries come in a direct revelation from God. When He reveals a discovery to me, the method also comes with the idea. In half an hour after He taught me, I produced the yolk of an egg from a Porto Rican sweet potato." One wonders, if he had had a similar inheritance, whether Charles Darwin would have made a similar confession.

--The Spingam Medal was this year awarded to Roland Hayes, tenor (TIME, Oct. 8, 1923).