Why I Thank God for Charles Darwin
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Wed, July 02, 2008
- Viewed 281
- (20) comments so far
Jesus and a nurturing church community gave me a lifeline in my struggles to find sobriety as a young man. A corollary of being born again, however, was that the preachers I listened to and the authors I read told me that accepting evolution would seduce me away from godly living. At first I believed them. But then I met professors, ministers, priests, nuns, rabbis, and chaplains who not only accepted an evolutionary view of cosmos and culture but found it religiously inspiring. Soon I too came to embrace the history of everyone and everything as our common Creation story.
Today, thanks to Charles Darwin and the countless evolutionary scientists and writers he inspired--in fields as diverse as astrophysics, geology, genetics, primatology, sociobiology, and brain science--I interpret my Christian faith in far broader and more this-world realistic ways than ever before. It is obvious to me now that God didn’t stop revealing truth vital to human wellbeing back when people believed the world was flat and religious insights were recorded on animal skins. God is still communicating faithfully today, publicly, through the worldwide, self-correcting scientific enterprise. I now see science as revelatory and facts as God’s native tongue.
You can read the whole article here...
What do you think?
Rev. Michael Dowd writes, "July 1st marks the 150th anniversary of the theory of evolution. For years, I believed that Darwin was of the devil. Now, I deeply honor his contribution to religion and my walk with God. Indeed, other than Jesus, no one has had a more positive impact on my faith and my ministry than has Charles Darwin.
For the last six years as an itinerant evolutionary evangelist, I have preached the good news of evolution from the pulpits of hundreds of churches across America. Faith can be strengthened and difficulties in life surmounted--all by bringing a mainstream scientific understanding of evolution into our religious lives. The response has been phenomenal. People of all ages and across the theological spectrum light up when they see new possibilities open for them, their loved ones, and the world. Often tearfully, always excitedly, they share their testimonials. Here is mine..."
Comments
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Peter Hamm on Wed, July 02, 2008
Boy, Todd, you love to stir things up lately.
Here’s my take. If you mean evolution as change from one species to another by natural selection with no intervention by or need of a “god”-figure, then it is obvious to me that it is contrary to the Christian faith.
If you tell me that a person must accept a 6-24hour-day creation theology in order to be a Christian, then I am going to balk at that, too.
I am decidedly undecided on this issue, except that I am sure it is not a crucial one… not even in the top 10.
I’m not a scientist, I don’t understand it all. I do know that God did it all, and it is fearful and wonderful!
Joey Smith on Wed, July 02, 2008
One comment from further down in the article (if I am reading correctly) may shed a little light on the overall tone of the article and the writers general perspective:
“No longer do I fear that my family and friends will suffer for eternity in the fires of an otherworldly hell. No longer am I led astray by my instincts—my unchosen nature”
The brutality God exhibits towards sin seen in His treatment of Israel and His Son at the Cross and the exclusive and intolerant statements of Jesus are very hard for our time or any time.
CS on Wed, July 02, 2008
There were two quotes later in the article that confused me:
“When I see suffering nearly everywhere today, I am overwhelmed with compassion and called to action.”
And…
“An evolutionary understanding urges me to grow in morality and to expand my circles of care and compassion—even to include those who see the world in very different ways. My worship of God now includes doing everything I can to ensure a just and thriving future for planet Earth, for our children’s children, and for as many species as possible.”
If the writer of the article truly believed and adhered to the complete theory of macroevolution, these feelings should be a hindrance and a throwback. In evolution, the strongest survive, and the weaker species die off. In this line of thinking, when we see suffering, we should be rejoicing that our competition is not doing as well as we are, and we should be doing what we can to eliminate them from possibly infringing upon our ability to grow and flourish. Compassion would be something to retard our ability to be number one in the universe.
I’m sorry, I don’t buy it.
—
CS
Joe on Wed, July 02, 2008
Societies that practice compassion are stronger than societies that don’t.
When each member of a society is out to get another, how can the whole be stronger than the parts? A house divided against itself cannot stand.
For example, this is one reason why we spend more on health care per person, and get less for it, than practically any developed country in the world. This severely weakens our finances.
Societies that have compassionate health care systems spend less than societies where the quality of health care is determined by income.
John on Wed, July 02, 2008
The scary part of all of this is, if you search “michael dowd” on Youtube, you see him preaching his “gospel” in churches.
jud on Wed, July 02, 2008
Peter,
I’m pretty sure God being who he says he is (Creator) and did what He said He did (in six days) and the way he created (each after it’s own kind) is in the Top 10. Of course six days to God is could be quite different than what six days are to me, that’s open for discussion.
Anyway, this is the springboard from which much of the church has begun it’s swan dive into apostasy. God’s Word is just man’s interpretation of God, therefore our “faith” is our own interpretation of God. This is saturating the Church.
So, yeah, it’s in the Top 10.
Peter Hamm on Wed, July 02, 2008
Jud,
I guess we’ll have to disagree, as I find no indication in the text that the Creation story is meant to be a science text. Is it a lesson that God in his sovereignty created everything that is? Absolutely. Does someone need to believe that it’s literally a six-day account to be saved? Absolutely not.
jud on Wed, July 02, 2008
Peter,
I NEVER said someone has to believe in a literal six-day creation to be saved. I DID say I believe that generally people who discount the creation account in Genesis interpret the Bible as Man’s take on God and therefore see their faith as their personal take on God.
How many times have you in a meeting of professing Christians heard sentences that go like this…
“MY God….
or
“What this verse means to ME is….
God is the arbiter of our Faith BY HIS HOLY WORD, not, us slicing and dicing the Bible to fit into our culturally conditioned sensebilities.
Daniel on Wed, July 02, 2008
I too am grateful for Darwin’s work. The fact that so few evangelicals have come to terms with the overwhelming explanatory power of the evolutionary hypothesis is damning, and a danger to the cause of the gospel, in my opinion.
Creationism requires that we check our brains at the door and is consequently dishonoring to God, the brilliant Creator of our minds. We have brains, we should use them.
It should be sobering to all of you non-evolutionists out there that the only folks who ‘object’ to evolutionary timeframes and common descent have religious motivations for doing so. Everyone else is apparently able to follow the evidence where it leads…
And to conclude with an appeal to authority, you should note that ‘ID’ proponent Michael Behe finds the evidence for common descent (so-called ‘macroevolution’) and evolutionary timeframes to be entirely convincing. Stop and think about that for a little bit…
Peace,
-Daniel-
jud on Wed, July 02, 2008
Daniel,
Where are the bones?
CS on Wed, July 02, 2008
Daniel:
“Creationism requires that we check our brains at the door and is consequently dishonoring to God, the brilliant Creator of our minds. We have brains, we should use them.”
Creationism requires our brains to explore the world, nature, the universe, and ask in astonishment, “Wow, how did God do all of this?” I agree that we should use our brains, and argue that the stigma of creationism being an absent-minded explanation of everything is erroneous.
Creationism is like being given a puzzle that is already solved, and taking it apart to understand how it was assembled. We know God created everything, that He made man in His image, and we’re then trying to find out how it all works together, like Newton did.
—
CS
Scotty on Wed, July 02, 2008
I have to ask, “is this guy for real?”. I think that this guy has a wrong view of General Revelation, and of Special Revelation.
The Christian view is that science is from the mind of fallen depraved man, and sometimes we get it right.
The scripture is the “Word of God” from a perfect and divine being, what am I going to believe, man or God….. God obviously. If God is the God of the supernatural, what is so strange with believing in a literal interpretation of Genesis, with 6 creative days?
There are credible scientists who are 6 day creationists. Check out Answers in Genesis, and The Creation Research Society.
Darwin introduced humanistic ideas to explain the origin of man “apart from God”. Just as Freud introduced ideas on the behavior of man “apart from God”. (and that’s a whole different debate).
SSS
Joe on Wed, July 02, 2008
God created evolution. There is no conflict at all.
The idea that the world was created in six days or is only a few thousand years old is a good argument for using our reason to prayerfully interpret scripture.
Genesis is a beautiful blessed story that captures man’s understanding of how God works, and gives us a sense of mystery and awe, but it’s not a textbook. To make it science is to demean it. To use it to move ourselves closer to God is to deepen our faith.
pritchett4 on Thu, July 03, 2008
The problem with the “Theory of Evolution” (note the word “theory"is that not only do you have to check your brain at the door, you also have to check your hermeneutics and theology at the door.
Checking brain: the theory of evolution is not scientific! Time + chance (luck) is not science - it also violates the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (Law of Entropy) which says that everything goes from order to disorder, plus a myriad of other problems. IMHO it takes more faith to believe that there is no Designer behind the design (which is incredibly impressive) than to believe God did what He said He did.
Checking Hermenutics & Theology: in Hebrew the word “day” (yom) can mean and indefinite period of time, e.g. “the day of the Lord.” However, when an ordinal is used with the word day, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., it always refers to a 24 hour period. In fact, the parameters to understanding this are given in Genesis - “evening and morning” which references a day as we know it. Also God used His rest on the 7th day to be a pattern. If it isn’t a day (literally) of rest, it means nothing. Theologically, the Bible records that death came through Adam. If the theory of evolution is accepted, then death was happening long before Adam existed and it is necessary to attempt to make this mean something different than what is said (lots of other theological issues come into play). Origins and Creation are not just some side note issue—it has implications for just about every area of theology, including redemption.
If one gets started wrong in Genesis, that individual will be off track through the rest of the Book all the way to Revelation. God’s blessings to you all as you seek to know Him in truth!
John on Thu, July 03, 2008
Here’s what this boils down to: If evolution is true, then not only is the Genesis account wrong (the argument that the term “day” can mean anything but a 24-hour period is not very convincing when looking at the Hebrew), but also that Jesus was wrong. In Mark 10:6-7 Jesus implies that he believed that Man existed at the ‘beginning’ of the world.
Long story short, this creates some major problems for Christian Theology.
If you’d like to see an expanded version of my thoughts on this, please see http://louderthanjesusfish.blogspot.com/2008/07/thank-god-for-charles-darwin.html
(I’m only posting this because it is specifically relevant to this article)
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