Monday, Lafayette, Indiana

It was 150 years ago this week that Charles Darwin submitted a paper outlining his famous theory of evolution. His theory directly confronted the tenets of his Christian church. Challenging the belief of “intelligent design,” Darwin argued that the evidence around him suggested that living species change through a process having to do with adapting to their environment,“evolving” in order to survive.

As is the case with so many radical scientific theories, it challenges people of religious faith to themselves adapt, reconciling the scientific “evidence” with the accepted interpretations of the Bible and church dogma. Over the centuries this has happened on several occasions. Among the most famous, of course, was when astronomers verified that the Earth was not in fact the center of the universe, but was a planet that was itself orbiting around our sun. And of course as time went on this scale of the known universe was staggering beyond imagination. And of course, the church and its theologians were compelled to re-articulate their understanding of reality and the rule of the Creator God in this new context.

To this day, of course there are those who flatly reject the idea of evolution, and instead accept a literal reading of the book of Genesis that asserts the creation by God in a matter of days. It has become a hot button issue in education and politics as states and local school districts determine the science curriculum to be taught to their children. To those who stand firmly on either side of this debate, there is little flexibility in their ideology. And in such cases, we are reminded that rigid positions are rarely sustainable.

As a person of convicted faith, I just find such matters a useless distraction. While it is interesting intellectual discourse to ponder the scale of reality, it is ultimately, of course, well beyond my capacity. Living by faith means living without the assurance of evidence. What seems certain and real in times past frequently evaporates demanding a new understanding of the world. Inflexible religion is an obstacle to faith. And I find unthinking dogma as ludicrous as committed atheism. Both positions are absurd.

Wherever you find yourself on these matters, good luck with that. As for me, I’ll stick with the counsel of Jesus, to love God as fully as possible, and to love and serve my neighbor more than myself. I don’t always do it well, but it’s a significant enough challenge to occupy all of my human energy.

As for Darwin, we can never really know the full truth of what he proposed. But I know he was human.

Oh, and, by the way, he married his cousin.

- You can swim underwater for several minutes at a time

- Pictures of your great grandfather show that your eyes are significantly closer together

- Your hat size has decreased by two inches in the last ten years

- You hairline is now in the middle of your forehead

- Your grown children are six inches shorter than you

- Others notice that you move your lips like a fish

- Your toes are growing together

- When your arms hang at your side you can touch your knees

- While sleeping your snoring sounds like the chirping of a toad

- You can out run your dog