What is there to celebrate about Darwin’s 200th birthday?
by Tas Walker
Published: 12 February 2009(GMT+10)
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The 12th February 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Charles
Darwin’s birth, and evolutionists around the world want us to make it into
a big celebration.
Unlike when Christians celebrate
the birth of Jesus Christ, most evolutionists are not open and up-front
about what they are on about, or how they feel.
They tell us it’s about the impact of Darwin’s great ideas. But when
we ask about the way his ideas underpinned the
blood-stained policies of Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Pol Pot they change their
tune. Richard Dawkins,
Darwin’s famous promoter, put it like this, “I’m a passionate
Darwinian when it comes to science, when it comes to explaining the world, but I’m
a passionate anti-Darwinian when it comes to morality and politics.”1 They want it both ways.
They pretend it is all about science but when do they make a similar fuss over other
scientists, such as Newton, Kepler, Pasteur, or Maxwell? It seems that Darwin is
an excuse to banish God. As Dawkins said, “ … Darwin made it possible
to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.”2
They pretend it is all about science but when do they make a similar fuss over other
scientists, such as Newton, Kepler, Pasteur, or Maxwell?
They pretend that Darwin is about natural selection, but it was a
creationist who first came up with the idea. Furthermore, natural selection
is a simple part of the biblical
Creation/Fall/Flood/Dispersion model, as a
culling rather than a creative force.
What they really mean is that bacteria changed into bananas and butchers all by
themselves over billions of years. It’s about removing the need for
the Creator, but they won’t usually spell that out, or admit that they have
no explanation for how it could possibly happen.
They claim Darwin’s idea of evolution was a great intellectual achievement,
but don’t explain that the
idea destroys reason itself. It certainly worried Darwin, who wrote, “But
then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s
mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value
or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s
mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?”3
They ask us to join in their celebrations but don’t give any reason for joy.
How can we celebrate a Darwinian universe that has, as Dawkins described it, “no
design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference”?4
Darryl Scott, whose teenage daughter was gunned down in the school library by a
killer with Natural Selection
emblazoned on his tee-shirt, found no comfort in Darwin. He said, “If
children are taught that they came from slime, that they evolved from a lower form
of life, and that there’s no future after death, then their views of life
are affected by that … life really doesn’t have the meaning that it
does to children who believe they are created in God’s image and that they
have not only this life but a future life as well.”5
Nothing could be more uncaring than the entire process of organic evolution—William
Provine, Professor of Biological Science, Cornell University.
William Provine, the son of a (liberal)
minister, lost his professed faith to Darwin under the teaching of his evolutionary
professor at university. He asks, “How can we have meaning in life? When we
die we are really dead; nothing of us survives. Natural selection is a process leading
every species almost certainly to extinction and ‘cares’ as much for
the HIV virus as for humans. Nothing could be more uncaring than the entire process
of organic evolution.”6
What is the sense of celebrating the uncaring process of evolution? C.S. Lewis wondered
about this too, and whether there was a hidden agenda: “Does the whole vast
structure of modern naturalism depend not on positive evidence but simply on an
a priori metaphysical prejudice? Was it devised not to get in facts but
to keep out God?”7
Keeping God out has consequences. Serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered 17
people before he was captured, said when interviewed in prison, “If a person
doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then—then what’s—what’s
the point of—of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable
ranges? That’s how I thought, anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution
as truth that we all just came from the slime. When we died, you know, that was
it, there is nothing … ”8
No, I find all this hoo-ha about the Darwin celebrations a bit contrived. So do
lots of other people, according to the UK Guardian and UK Telegraph.9 Commenting on the latest polls
the Telegraph said, “More than half of the public believe that the theory
of evolution cannot explain the full complexity of life on Earth, and a ‘designer’
must have lent a hand.”
So, on the occasion of Darwin’s birthday in 2009, the Darwinists themselves
would likely feel a bit unhappy about that result. Rather than celebrate, they must
feel frustrated at not being able to convince the public after 150 years of continual
indoctrination.
Some readers’ comments:
Pr. Peter G, Australia
Well written, great points, highly relevant. We have nothing to celebrate on this
birthday, rather its a death-day, since Darwin sought to tell everyone that death,
disease and suffering are all natural.
Alin D, Australia
I was in the car today listening to an Adelaide Am radio station where they were
praising and rejoicing on Darwin's birthday. They kept on emphasizing on how intolerant
the creationists are, and how narrow minded they are as well. As far as I'm concerned
it is evolution that is preached every oportunity they get all over the media as
true fact with a fervor typical to believers.
No, there is nothing to celebrate. The late Carl Sagan marveled at the loss of enthusiasm
for science:
‘I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science
there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.’
I marvel at how he didn’t understand that.
Graham B., United Kingdom
The article is well argued. I own and have read both the Bible and Darwin’s Origin
of Species. By the way, Darwin speaks of islands where the only creatures are ones
that could have swum or flown there and uses this as an argument against creationism.
However, it is an argument for the Flood.
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Further reading
Related resources
References
- The Science Show, ABC Radio, Australia, 22 January 2000 Return to text.
- Dawkins, R., The Blind Watchmaker, Penguin Books, London,
England, p. 6, 1991. Return to text.
- Charles Darwin, Letter to William Graham, 1881.
Return to text.
- Dawkins, R., River out of Eden, ch. 4.
Return to text.
- <headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/afa/282003a.asp>,
28 October, 2003 Return to text.
- William B Provine, Evolution: free will and punishment and
meaning in life, Darwin Day address, 12 February 1998, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, <http://eeb.bio.utk.edu/darwin/DarwinDayProvineAddress.htm>
Return to text.
- C.S. Lewis, Is Theology Poetry? In: The Weight of Glory; cited
in: A Year with C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from his Classic Works, ed. P.S. Klein,
2003, p. 337. Return to text.
- Dateline NBC interview with Jeffrey Dahmer and Stone Phillips,
Aired November 29, 1994. Return to text.
- Butt, R., Half of Britons do not believe in evolution, survey
finds, The Guardian, 1 Feb 2009, <guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/01/evolution-darwin-survey-creationism>;
Wynne-Jones, J., Poll reveals public doubts over Charles Darwin’s theory of
evolution, The Telegraph, 6 Feb 2009, <telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/4410927/Poll-reveals-public-doubts-over-Charles-Darwins-theory-of-evolution.html>.
Return to text.
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