Shrewsbury is awash with Charles Darwin.
In the bicentenery of his birth, the Darwin festival is fully prepared, half a million of taxpayers money has been set aside for publicity, there are Darwin 2009 flags on the lamp posts around town and anything and everything seems to be pointing to the big man.
No, not THE BIG MAN in our sense of the word, but the man from Shrewsbury who some people suggest "killed God".
Based on my experience of the living God I have always found that description of Darwin somewhat crude, both in the assumption that God is somehow dead and the implication that it is because of Darwin. I am sure if God had died it would have taken a bit more than a chap from a little town in between somewhere near nowhere and Wales to kill Him.
But how do we respond to the onslaught from neo-darwinists who take his theory, stretch it, flog it, sell it and use it to sell a godless philosophy?
This is why I am excited about "Honest to Darwin" happening here in Shrewsbury later this month. Many Christians simply do not know how to respond to the challenges made by neo-darwinist philosophy that so insidiously lay claim to branches of science.
The aim here, is that by using the science itself, and the outcomes of the science, that we can challenge the philosophy while recognising the contribution made by science.
The media seem interested too. BBC Shropshire's website covers the whole Darwin thing in some depth and the Intelligent Design response has got some exposure on their main page, as well as in an article.
I have a hunch that if we really want to be listened to then we need to present an approach well worth listening to. If the discussion is about the science then let us use the science to provoke the discussion. If we want to challenge the philosophy then we need to present a philosophy worth holding. If we can use "their" science to do so, then we are taking the battle to them like never before.
I think the greatest threat to neo-darwinism is going to come within the science itself.
3 comments:
Have you seen the Church of England site which I linked to here? Is this helpful to Christians in your situation?
If all Christians were like X (name your favourite living saint), then I'd think about going to church.
Which I'd translate into a question as 'Why doesn't being a Christian make a difference to most people's lives?'
What I hear most from non-Christians is 'Christians are hypocrites'. But it's not a question!
Why can't we use Darwins model as a way to explain where we come from, and Religion as a set of teachings to live our lives and treat our fellow man?
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