Evolution Sunday

February 11th is Evolution Sunday across America. I was invited to submit a commentary at my church and I post it here:

Genesis 1:

¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. ²And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. ³And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. ⁴And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. ⁶And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. ⁷And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. ⁸And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. ⁹And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

Nearly every Christian and Jew has read this account of creation. The verses are among the very first that children hear in their bible study class and they are among the most recognized verses in the bible. They are also verses that can be used to generate tension between Christianity and science.

Today, in thousands of churches across the United States, people will be discussing these verses and the harmonization of science and religion. Dubbed “Evolution Sunday”, the day is meant to help people become familiar with the role of science in religion and the role of religion in science.

Tension between religion and science is nothing new. In 1632, Galileo Galilei delivered a letter to the Catholic Church describing a radical new view of our place in the cosmos. In the spring of 1633 Galileo was delivered to the church for his heretical view of heliocentrism. The church was livid that Galileo would criticize the biblical view of the Earth as the center of the Universe. The Church wrote:

“From which we are content that you be absolved, provided that first, with a sincere heart, and unfeigned faith, you abjure, curse, and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies, and every other error and heresy contrary to the Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church in the form to be prescribed by us. And in order that this your grave and pernicious error and transgression may not remain altogether unpunished, and that you may be more cautious for the future, and an example to others, that they may abstain from similar delinquencies’we ordain that the book of the “Dialogues of Galileo Galilei” be prohibited by public edict.”

Slightly before this, Martin Luther wrote of the cosmos:

“Scripture simply says that the moon, the sun, and the stars were placed in the firmament of the heaven, below and above which heaven are the waters... It is likely that the stars are fastened to the firmament like globes of fire, to shed light at night... We Christians must be different from the philosophers in the way we think about the causes of things. And if some are beyond our comprehension like those before us concerning the waters above the heavens, we must believe them rather than wickedly deny them or presumptuously interpret them in conformity with our understanding."

We would look at the views of geocentricity and the firmament today as downright silly, but in historical context, Galileo had committed a grave sin against God, the Church and the Bible. What has changed since the days of Galileo?

There can be little doubt that modern scientific knowledge has led to improvements in our lifestyle and our understanding of the universe about us. It is also true that now, even in the 21^st century, people still feel uncomfortable with the discoveries of modern science and take theological offense to some of the findings of science. Perhaps no scientific discovery seems more insulting to Christian thought than the notion of biological evolution. Ever since Darwin suggested that humankind and apes shared a common ancestry, various factions of the church have taken offense. In the 1920’s John T. Scopes was tried for teaching evolution in Dayton, Tennessee and to this day, certain religious factions hold that evolution is false and the earth is only 6000 years old. In fact, these same “Christian” organizations are also politically active trying to ban/alter books that teach a scientific view that is different from their reading of Genesis---in much the same way that the Catholic Church banned Galileo’s teachings. Others have tried to invent a new science called “Intelligent Design” in an attempt to force science into compliance with a narrow view of the bible. Although it hides behind scientific-sounding verbiage, Intelligent design is a scientifically vacuous political movement. The primary goal is aimed at establishing a theocracy in America and eliminating all scientific thought that is not in concert with the views of its ruling body. This is no different from the actions of the Catholic Church in Galileo’s time.

Why are the findings of science and religion seemingly at odds? If we share a common ancestry with other primates, does that somehow lessen our place in the world? Does it destroy the Christian need for salvation? These are deep questions and “Evolution Sunday” is about exploring the role of Christianity in science and vice-versa. It is my stance that science should not be viewed as a threat to the bible. The acceptance of heliocentrism, while radical at the time, did not result in the whole-scale abandonment of religion. The discovery that the earth was 4.5 billion years old rather than the 6000 years assumed by Archbishop James Ussher, did not cause a mass exodus from the halls of worship. The fact that all organisms on earth share the same essential biochemistry does not lessen our place in the cosmos. If anything, these similarities bind us to all life and help us understand our place in this universe. Science should not be viewed as a threat to Christianity or the bible and science most certainly should not be intimidated by Christianity. Frances Collins, head of the human genome project made this point in a recent interview with Christianity today:

“Yet it seems to be a pretty well kept secret these days that the scientific approach and the spiritual approach are compatible. I think we've allowed for too long extreme voices to dominate the stage in a way that has led many people to assume that's all there is. The thesis of my book is that there is no need for this battle. In fact, it's a destructive battle. And we as a society would be well served to recover that happy middle ground where people have been for most of human history.”

Evolution Sunday is about re-establishing harmony and mutual respect amongst science and religion. It is about the realization that knowledge of our evolutionary history is no more threatening to the Christian faith than is the knowledge that the Earth orbits the Sun.

Best Wishes

Joe Meert

Suggested Reading:

1. Collins, Frances. The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

2. Miller, Ken. Finding Darwin’s God: A scientists search for common ground between God and Evolution.

3. Brockman, John. Intelligent thought: Science versus the intelligent design movement.