Are You My Father?

I wonder if Darwin realized the impact and hubbub his little book, Origin of Species, would cause? Did he ever ponder what effects his theory might have? As he was writing, did Darwin lay down his pen and think, "This will change the world?" It would be curious to know if he ever considered other scientific guesses such as Aristotle's theory of Spontaneous Generation that crippled science until it was proven wrong before he published his work. Fast forward to today, and the world is still trying to unravel Darwin's theory. The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly will be taking a vote to ban creationism and intelligent design from schools. Thus, only evolution will be taught. The Council argues that only radical religion and extremists believe in intelligent design. Perhaps they have over looked the fact that one has to be pretty crazy (or have extreme faith) to believe all of mankind evolved from monkeys?

One could use all sorts of scientific arguments to combat evolution. A person could site the complexity of the human eye or how the brain sends signals without our help to the heart to keep pumping and to the lungs to keep breathing. Or one could look to the human cell, as microbiologist Michael Denton explains, "What we would then see would be an object of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design" (1.). However, one of the first things I learned in Junior High science class was: science can't prove anything. What science does do is point, like a bright neon sign, to Creator God. "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 1:20, NIV).

So in an appeal to logic, we turn to a different avenue. Mankind throughout the ages has turned to gods and religions to fulfill their inner desires and to answer questions of life and death: "What is ultimate reality? What is the nature of the world? What is the nature of humanity? What is humanity's primary problem? What happens after death?" (2.). The authors of the college textbook, Communications Between Cultures, comment: "Whether it is the teachings of the Bible, Vedas, Koran, Torah, or I Ching, people have always felt a need to look outside themselves for the values they use to manage their lives and guidance on how to view and explain the world" (3.).

Therefore, if non-Christians and Christians alike agree that man has "always felt a need" to search for a being beyond themselves, how can anyone believe in Evolution? Evolution preaches man is the ultimate. Through random chance, he evolved from pond scum to ape to human. If man has evolved and keeps on evolving toward perfection, why do we all need a being greater and outside ourselves to fulfill us? Why has man always needed a Greater Being help him in life if he has and is doing it all on his own as evolution teaches?

None of us would ever take a look at an ape sitting in a zoo and say, "I wonder what his offspring will invent." No one sends a guerrilla a birthday card because he's a "distant relative." Darwin wrote Origin of Species because he, like all of us, was looking for answers to the meaning of life. Evolution and science is not the end-all. Instead, both send man on a quest to find what they point to: Christ Jesus. For those who persist in this hunt, great is their reward: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be open" (Matthew 7:7,8).

--Hannah

Endnotes:

1. Halverson, Dean C., The Compact Guide to World Religions. Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers p. 13

2. Samovar, Larry A.; Porter, Richard E.; McDaniel, Edwin R., Cummnication Between Cultures 6th ed. California: Thomson Learning, Inc. p. 75

3. Halverson, Dean C., The Compact Guide to World Religions. Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers p. 22