Evolution... what’s the problem???
 
Throughout the last few years we have witnessed a renewed push to revitalize the creationism vs. evolution debate. What has brought this back into people’s minds as something that is bothering them? Why is it especially that Christians in this country have such a difficult time accepting evolutionary theory as having truth. I honestly believe it is a two fold problem for Christians. The first portion is the theory of evolution doesn’t do much for our sense of altruism or sense of Christian benevolence without an agenda. The second problem in my opinion is our “ego.” Christianity is a particularly anthropocentric religion and as such has lead humans to feel we are the apples of God’s eye. It is not surprising we have this mentality, it can easily be referenced in a variety of Biblical passages as well as documents generated by the early church fathers and the sentiment still exists today. We are often thought of as the capstone of creation. Evolution dislodges our special status by leveling the playing field with all living organisms. I think the theory of evolution makes us feel some how diminished instead of making us feel less alone and more a part of creation. This dislodging is something we are going to have to deal with as Christians instead of shying away from it or rebelling against it like a pratt of a teenager who is unhappy with his parent’s parenting ability (whether justified or not). It is time we stopped thinking of ourselves as the capstone of creation and begin to think of ourselves as part of creation. Evolution arguments are about status…not in the socio-economic sense but I am referring to our status in the cosmos. Truth be told, the only problem with evolution is us and it is time we stopped being a problem. There is truth in evolution… much more than we like to admit. Christians need to stop thinking we are better and worth more than anything else and take a large does of non-christo-anthro-pocentric humility as I think Christ would have wanted. Jesus was all about dislodging power and the theory of evolution in fact has dislodged us from our seat of power over creation. Its time to deal with the truth of reality folks, because if we don’t we are going to end up destroying everything we hold dear, including our oh so precious selves.
evolution..... what’s the problem?
Wednesday, October 24, 2007