Deconstructing Darwin—full steam ahead!
The world is starting to take notice in the “year of Darwin”
by Calvin Smith
A local newspaper captures CMI’s Richard Fangrad and Dr Emil Silvestru in
action.
Published: 17 March 2009(GMT+10)
During 2009 atheist and humanist groups are celebrating Darwin’s birthday and their
belief that evolution explains life without God. To counter this CMI offices all
over the world are working to equip Christians to answer sceptics attack on
the Bible and to boost and share their faith.
The vision
CMI Canada’s Dr Emil Silvestru (suggested
a world class documentary re-tracing Darwin’s voyage, for release in 2009, to counteract
the inevitable evolutionary hype from sceptics. Soon after, CMI Canada had a vision
for major CMI events and conferences that would assist Christians in countering
Bible critics as well.
It seemed like a perfect opportunity. We knew it was coming and rather than watching
the inevitable fallout from churches that such periodic anti-Christian attacks like
the Da Vinci Code
or The Lost Tomb of Jesus
usually produce, we decided to contact larger churches that would be willing and
capable of hosting such events to prepare Christians for the inevitable. Darwin’s
bicentennial and the 150th anniversary release of Origin of Species
were sure to set off a firestorm of anti-God and pro-evolution celebrations and
activities, so why not face it head on?
The wave
Newspapers have been picking up on the church’s response to this Darwin year.
Sure enough, many pro-evolution documentaries for release in 2009 are planned, talk
of establishing “Darwin Day” (as a holiday on par with Christmas) has
begun, many news outlets have reported on the “There is probably no God”
advertising campaigns in England, Canada and the US. Nature launched a
special issue featuring Darwin, his science and his legacy.
The Natural History Museum in London, UK, dedicated a website promoting a national
program of events celebrating his scientific ideas. Museums,
universities and science organizations are networking globally to promote Darwin
through exhibitions, lectures and conferences.
Events are planned in dozens of countries including the USA, United Kingdom, Australia,
China, South Korea, Portugal, Germany, Egypt and Hong Kong. Stanford University,
California, will fly 90 “pilgrims” along the route of Darwin’s
Beagle voyage. Even art exhibitions and music festivals are featuring paintings,
sculpture and orchestral works praising Darwin and evolution.
Even more sadly, a self-avowed atheist Michael
Zimmerman (US) is canvassing and enlisting the support of churches around
the world to endorse evolution and celebrate Darwin for an
evolution weekend, and thousands of churches have or will participate!
Obviously, a faith-funded Christian ministry like CMI cannot hope to compete head-to-head
with publicly-funded programs like many mentioned above, but God does use the faithful
in promoting His word.
The results (so far!)
Already, approximately 1700 people have attended one of our Canadian 2–day
Deconstructing Darwin (DD) conferences, and the majority and largest of conferences
are still to come!
Already, approximately 1700 people have attended one of our Canadian 2–day
Deconstructing Darwin (DD) conferences, and the majority and largest of
conferences are still to come! All of this is in addition to hundreds of
others reached through our “regular” and ongoing ministry events and
tours! One of the conferences that was broadcast live online from TheStreamTV.com
(which potentially reached thousands more all around the world) elicited comments
like this;
“God bless CMI and the Stream TV for making available a Deconstructing Darwin
conference online free for all to watch. After having recently completed watching
all the seminars, I want to say Emil,
Richard, Calvin, and
Jeff had stellar presentations. I want to commend you for standing on
the authority of the Word of God when answering questions, and starting from Scripture.”
—David K.
… after the last 2 days I have never been so confident and encouraged in
my faith as a Christian
After a recent conference in Kingston, Ontario a young man came forward and said
that he had been attending church since he was 4 years old, and “ …
after the last 2 days I have never been so confident and encouraged in my faith
as a Christian!”
A Canadian organization promoting their own events to celebrate Charles Darwin’s
birthday.
This is only one of many such comments our speakers have heard; the “buzz”
at these meetings has been tremendous. The secular press and radio stations have
interviewed our speakers to get in on the excitement generated by these conferences
(see pictures). Many pastors and church leaders have attended and given positive
feedback. Connections to churches that have never been exposed to the creation message
before have been established.
The future
One of the advertising leaflets for CMI’s Deconstructing Darwin events
in the same town.
The requests for Deconstructing Darwin conferences for 2009 have already
exceeded our capacity to fulfil! Most of our international offices are reporting
a similar phenomenon. So, in Canada, we have started booking into 2010 and will
continue throughout next year for those communities that are willing to host an
event. We anticipate continued interest as we add screenings of our new Darwin Film
documentary into the conference schedules. With the world experiencing one of the
most intense periods of evolutionary indoctrination, Christians will undoubtedly
be hungry for answers for years to come.
Please continue to pray that these events will embolden Christians and ultimately
that God will use the information to draw people into His kingdom. Also, if there
is a conference in your area bring others with you; you may be amazed at what God
will do! (One pastor reported a dramatic increase in his young adult program after
many attended a Deconstructing Darwin event hosted at their church.)
CMI offices worldwide are offering Deconstructing Darwin events in a variety
of formats. For information visit
DeconstructingDarwin.com or contact
your local office.
Further reading
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