Some Christians Protest Darwin's Birthday. Is Their Antagonism Misplaced?
In an interview, one of the authors of Darwin's Sacred Cause argues Darwin was motivated by his faith
Today, lots of theologically conservative Christians see Darwin as a villain . Did the religious establishment see him that way when he published Origin of Species?
Darwin today differs in significant ways from the challenge in Darwin's time because the debate is being orchestrated and publicized by people who simply have not taken the time nor have the patience to understand Darwin's works and intentions in the way that his contemporaries did. In his own day, Darwin didn't give back [to church authorities] in terms of humanity as much as he took away in terms of God's activity in the world and what he took away from human nature in relating us to animals. People still wanted to believe that humans are unrelated to any other species. That is Adam and Eve. And that's what Darwin subverted.
How did D arwin's theory of evolution through natural selection affect his own faith?
Darwin's active religious faith faded. He seems to have glided fairly easily into a freethinking way about religion before he was 30 years old. But as he said later in life, he never gave up Christianity until he was 40 years old. There came a time when Darwin could no longer accept the Bible as the word of God or Jesus as the son of God. But when he was researching Origin of Species, he says his belief in God was as strong as that of an Anglican prelate.
Reader Comments
Contradictory
Ric, if science does not deal with the spiritual or supernatural, then how can it disprove supernatural beings like demons?
Also, you have no idea what a Christian soldier is. You are comparing nominal/cultural Christians with those who do follow Christ's teachings.
What myth? Christianity didn't exist until a few years after Christ's death and resurrection.
Typical pig ignorant religious nuts
The Archdiocese of Dublin and other Catholic Church authorities in Ireland covered up clerical child abuse until the mid-1990s, according to a government-commissioned report released Thursday.
The Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation's 720-page report said that it has "no doubt that clerical child sexual abuse was covered up" from January 1975 to May 2004, the time covered by the report.
"The Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets," the report said.
"The welfare of children, which should have been the first priority, was not even a factor to be considered in the early stages," it said.
"Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members -- the priests."
For RL Schaefer
Science does not deal with the spirit world of philosophy. It deals with the physical world. It does not answer the questions of WHY we are here; it only answers the question of HOW we are here. What Science DOES do, much to the chagrin of people who like to believe in ghosts, are disprove many of the “stories” in the Christian bible. There are no talking snakes, there are no magical fruits, there are no giant wooden boats, there was never a world flood, etc, etc etc. So if a Christian God is omniscient and omnipotent, why is he lying to you? On the other hand, is it that people with a large stake in the political and monetary rewards that can come with convincing other people that they know the REAL truth about the world manipulate historical events. People that claim to have magic powers to heal, not too convincingly cry on television after “sinning against God”, tell others that God hates homosexuals and then have sex with a male prostitute. Would people like that actually change historical events to further their own ambitions?! I am SHOCKED!!
So believe in ghosts and demons if you wish, that is actually a right you have in this great country. Conversely, the rest of us have a right to freedom FROM religion. We also have the right to criticize your archaic and ridiculous ancient religious beliefs based on myth that existed thousands of years before your Jesus ever lived. Christianity is no more valid than any other religious belief in the world, much more violent than most (onward Christian soldiers, marching off to war) and a Christian God is no more relevant than Apollo or Zeus.
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