Darwin is the Devil

Growing up in an ultra-conservative sect of Christianity, I believed Charles Darwin to be a monster. Pure evil. A tool used by the devil to discredit God and the Bible.

I knew nothing about Mr. Darwin, mind you. The only thing I new about his evil theory was that humans supposedly evolved from apes. It was explained to me by a respected member of my congregation that if we really had evolved from apes, why aren’t apes evolving into humans today? Coming from an adult, it made perfect sense to me. Evolution was ludicrous.

And ignorance is bliss.

Fortunately, as I grew I didn’t take this explanation at face value. I learned that Darwin’s theory wasn’t just about apes evolving into humans. And in the 150 years since the publication of Darwin’s The Origin Of Species, science has “evolved” enough to expand on this theory, tie up some loose ends, and bring the theory closer to fact.

The reason I bring this up, on Darwin’s 200th birthday, is that many persons believe as I did as a boy. They believe the creation story in Genesis to be literal. They believe the earth to be about 6,000 years old. Adam was created from dust and Eve from Adam’s rib. These were the first two humans. They didn’t evolve from any lower life form.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this belief. Creationism is a sincere conviction held by many intelligent people, and should be respected. The problem is many accept creationism as fact, without even bothering to explore other opinions, without learning what science has taught us about evolution, accepting ignorance over education.

How can one make a decision on a matter, without first being informed of all possible options, and looking at those options with a completely open mind? One wouldn’t choose an insurance company based solely on the fact that it is their parents’ choice. Would they? Actually, many do.

As I matured, and started “freethinking” (something very dangerous to do), I came to the realization that evolution says nothing about who or what created the universe. It merely explains how one life form gave way to the next. Evolution is completely compatible with belief in God. This was quite an exiting revelation as you might imagine.

Darwin’s theory was not meant to disprove the idea of an intelligent creator. After the publication of The Origin of Species, American biologist Asa Gray wrote Darwin a letter saying that his theory demonstrated how God created the species. Darwin praised Gray for being the first person to see the point.

I wonder why more fundamentalist can’t see the point. True, the theory of evolution is not compatible with the six-day creation story in Genesis, but is it even remotely possible that the account is something less than completely literal? Could it be an allegory, a symbolic representation perhaps?

Darwin has long been a champion to Atheists. Why can’t he be a champion to believers as well?