I was reading about the original monkey trial the other day. What a ride that trial must have been. A couple of points, however, on the difference between the opposition to evolution then, and the opposition now.
William Jennings Bryan was one of the most vocal anti-evolutionists of his time, and one of the most articulate men of that period. But we forget, sometimes, that he opposed evolution for multiple reasons. Yes, one was that it contradicted a literal Bible. (We should note, here, that Bryan and most mainstream Protestants of his time did not believe in a Young Earth or even in a literal 7 day creation. In fact, that view was predominately held by Seventh Day Adventists.) But Bryan also opposed evolution because he feared that it was a justification for war (survival of the fittest) and Bryan was a strong peace advocate. Third, he knew that Social Darwinism had been used to oppose serious economic reforms, and he feared that trend would continue.
Look how far we have come. The opposition to evolution is still, in many ways, as uninformed as it was in Bryan's day (evolution is just a theory). But the conservative church has lost the opposition to war and the push for social and economic justice. The contemporary opposition to evolution just sounds stubborn and self-centered.
4 comments:
That is interesting, especially given that many of the churches that oppose evolution now have embraced the ambiguous 'War on Terror' and support public policies in line with Social Darwinisn.
I wonder what WJB would make of that? Would he stand with the anti-evolutionists or would he stand with the peace movement and the living wage types?
"It makes the ganglia twitch"
Under cross examination, ID proponent Michael Behe, a biochemist at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, admitted his definition of "theory" was so broad it would also include astrology.
That's an interesting nuance...we never discussed that in my human origins class when we dealt with the history of Christian views on evolution in the US. Do you have a reference, by chance?
Natalie, for which part are you asking for a cite?
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