In 1859 English Naturalist Charles Darwin published his paradigm shifting, world changing book, On The Origin of Species. Darwin argued that the theory of evolution provides an explanation for how life could evolve from natural causes. Academics and humanists, already atheistic for moral reasons, now had a metaphysical theory that could explain life without a creator.
Today, in most schools and universities, Darwinism is taught as fact. To doubt Darwin is to be ignorant or heretical. I was taught Darwinism as science and as fact. When I became a Christian, my relationship with Christ was a matter of faith. Like most Christians of my generation, I lived in two worlds, the world of “science and facts,” and a separate and disconnected world of “religion and faith.”
In the last century, Christians have tended to operate with two minds and live in two worlds: the world of science vs. the world of the church, the world of nature vs. the world of grace, the physical world vs. the spiritual world. And of course, the spiritual world is considered higher and more important than the secular world. Accordingly, for many Christians, Darwin does not really matter.
Then there are many Christians who believe that Darwin is science and fact and seek to integrate their faith with what science has “shown to be true.” These Christians are Theistic-Evolutionists. They believe that God created the divine spark of life and then used the mechanism of evolution to guide the process of the development of the species, including human beings. For either group–Christians who have separated science from faith and those who have married Darwinism to faith–there is a sense that Darwin does not really matter in everyday life.
This impression is mistaken.
Because culture is derived from cult (worship), as Western nations rejected God, they made man (per atheistic materialism) and nature (per neo-paganism) the object of worship. The rise of Darwinian science has produced a radical change, a deformation, of Western society. Darwinism’s consequences are many, far beyond the spiritual or the biological. Dr. Marvin Olasky details some of these consequences in the everyday realms of politics, economics, sexuality, and issues of life.
Olasky knows firsthand of what he writes. Born into a Jewish family, he became an atheist as a young man, a Marxist in college and joined the Communist party. At age 26, after reading the New Testament, he became a follower of Jesus Christ. He went on to earn a PhD in American Culture and served as Professor of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin from 1983 until 2007. Dr. Olasky has written 20 books, including the ground breaking The Tragedy of American Compassion, served as Provost of The Kings College in New York (2007-2011), and currently is the Editor in Chief of the respected bi-weekly news magazine World.
If you think Darwin does not matter, please read Olasky’s article. We are in a battle for the soul of our cultures and nations. Ideas have consequences! If we want to see our nations reach their God-given potential, we need to think about the roots from which our culture and communities grow.
– Darrow Miller
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