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The First Church of Darwin

Maybe you heard that this past weekend (Feb 8-10) was “Evolution Weekend,”an event that “evolved” from “Evolution Sunday” (or “Darwin Day”) founded two years ago by the Clergy Letter Project. Designed to coincide with Darwin’s birthday (Feb 12), the entire project is an effort to bring churches and the Christian “clergy” together with scientists to promote the theory of evolution, and to dispel the idea that religion and evolution are incompatible. Believe it or not, over 800 churches participated in this year’s celebration. It all began with the Clergy Letter Project, an effort founded in 2004 by Michael Zimmerman, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University in Indianapolis. Over 11,000 “clergy” have signed the letter, which means they agree that “religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform human hearts.” The letter urges school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge, asking that “science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.” Evolution Weekend, in turn, brings scientists and clergy together in the churches, with seminars and sermons designed to promote the theory of evolution. You can see a list of some of the churches that participated in this past weekend’s event or have signed on to the CLP at www.butler.edu. Most of them consist of the more liberal, mainstream churches such as the United Church of Christ, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Lutheran, and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but I did see a few Baptist and a number of First Christian Churches (independent). I couldn’t find any churches of Christ, but I didn’t peruse the entire 11,000+ names.

Coinciding with this momentous event, the journal Nature published an article praising the legacy of Darwin. In it Berkeley paleontologist Kevin Padian writes "Perhaps no individual has had such a sweeping influence on so many facets of social and intellectual life as Charles Darwin, born on 12 February 1809.” Only Marx and Freud earn a close second. Jesus Christ doesn’t even get an honorable mention. Maybe Evolution Weekend will eventually replace Christmas and Easter as the biggest day of the year for these churches which could be renamed “The First Church of Darwin.”

There is one thing, however, with which I can at least partially agree, and that is that “religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform human hearts.” That’s partially true. Generally speaking, religious truth is based on supernatural revelation from God, not on scientific, experimental observation. It does not come from the wisdom of men, nor is it that which has ever entered the heart of man apart from revelation by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2.6-13). I say that is partially true, because in Christianity, there is also the element of eyewitness testimony and historical "verification," both of which are more akin to scientific truth. Nonetheless, scientific truth, as opposed to revelation-based religious truth, is based on observation of natural phenomena and repeatable experimentation. So, yes, there is a difference. The thing is, the theory of evolution (i.e., macroevolution) belongs in the former category, i.e., religious truth. It is based on neither observation nor repeatable experimentation, but is a matter of faith. And like all religion, its purpose is to transform human hearts. Just ask Karl Marx and his followers. Or ask the millions of their murdered victims.