Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Charles Darwin...and why some Christians DO get it!

I often visit the blog Of Course, I Could Be Wrong written by the man known to the blogosphere as Mad Priest. I enjoy the wit and the banter on the site, so if you have never been, you should give it a go...and see what this priest in the Church of England is posting.

Of particular interest to me was this piece from Dr. Denis Alexander on the upcoming birthday of Charles Darwin and the anniversary of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The article is an excellent analysis of an age-old and, in my opinion, extremely tired debate about religion vs. science. There is a school of thought out there amongst the circles I travel in that if one is a Christian, or professes a belief in God, then you are "guilty by association" of being a Darwin-hater. I'm bothered by the immediate leap some will make to say that Christian belief means a rejection of evolution. Nothing could be further from the truth, at least for me.

As I have noted before in this post, I don't see evolution as contrary to Christianity and vice-versa. The first creation story told in Genesis reads like an ancient people's myth to explain how things came into being...and it sounds remarkably familiar to evolution. And, if you read Dr. Alexander's article, you will find that many of the theologians of Darwin's day seemed to be thinking in the same way. This battle between biology and theology seems to be more of a post-Darwin development. And it's a shame that the two have become entrenched in their positions. Not very evolutionary thinking, is it?

No comments: