Christianity and the Evolution of Man
(Picking up on number 19 from my list of 'things I don’t believe in') Tonight’s episode of the TV series on Darwin related the accounts of his battle to publish his studies on evolution, causing outrage among those who held to a ‘biblical’ account of creation. Darwin, a pious man, came to reject belief in a God who would ‘everlastingly punish’ unbelievers (see point 15 in previous blog), and yet he retained his belief in a creator God who was the author of life. Darwin saw glory and majesty in the awesome developments of life on earth, and the reaction of his detractors reveals more about their form of exegesis than it does about Darwin’s precepts. His detractors (and even his dear wife) were products of their culture and believers in a the prevalent (but particularly modern) idea of Christianity that interpreted scripture to mean that mans physical body was made in the image of God, and that therefore, to accept the theory and implications of evolution would be to render their