Questions of faith
Christians are divided about evolution and the creation
EASTER Sunday is an exuberant moment in the calendar of St Chad’s, the church where a doctor called Robert Darwin, sceptical about religion but conscious of convention, had his son Charles baptised in 1809. This year, as every year since the cylindrical building was constructed in 1790, worshippers at the main Anglican church in this old English town will give a lusty rendering of some familiar Easter hymns; and many will stroll down the nearby river bank where young Charles Darwin took “delight in fishing for newts” .
Mark Thomas, the vicar, easily reconciles his faith with local pride in a man who convinced many people that the Bible could not be literally true. As co-organiser of an annual Darwin festival, featuring lectures on religion and science, he cites Saint Paul’s adage that the
“letter kills, but the spirit gives life”
as a warning against literalism.
And in other English places linked with Darwin, there is often more emphasis on the scientist’s emollient personality than on arguments which raged over his work. In Cambridge, where Darwin studied theology, a play has just been staged that recounts the warm correspondence between Darwin and Asa Gray, an American botanist who shared his friend’s scientific interests but had conventional views on religion. The play is a spinoff from a project to publish 14,000 letters received or sent by Darwin, and to post some on the internet. As the play shows, Darwin’s scepticism in religious matters gradually deepened, yet his feelings for his friend were unaffected.
On this day...
- A Divine and Supernatural Light Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God - 2012
- THE DISCIPLINE OF HEEDING - 2009
- THE INITIATIVE AGAINST DREAMING - 2009
- THE INITIATIVE AGAINST DRUDGERY - 2009
- Facing Uncertainty - 2008
- In My Place - 2007
- Price of Peace - 2007
- ARTIFICIALITY IS A DISEASE Of THE SOUL - 2007
- WE ARE BECOMING WHAT WE LOVE! - 2007
- Our Forgiveness - 2007
- Acts 8:3 - 2007
- Psalm 39:3 - 2007
- IN WORD AND IN POWER - 2007
- Isaiah 3:10 - 2007
- Psalms 22:7 - 2007
December 28, 2010