Crossing a river in Kerala State, India Credit: Michel Coutty/Flickr/Creative Commons
Something is happening in the world, and it’s like storm clouds gathering.
On January 20, India’s Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Mr. Satyapal Singh made statements that were critical of Darwinian Evolution, including has belief that the subject should not be taught in schools in India.
About six months before that, the government of Turkey made similar statements.
India is governed by religious Hindus, and Turkey is governed by religious Muslims. They don’t have the same religious beliefs, but something about Darwinian Evolution really bothers both groups. It’s one thing they agree on.
It’s easy for English-speaking westerners to think they are the leaders in human progress, but there are other voices.
Darwin’s theory for the origin of the species, evolution, is a logic escalator. In a department store, you don’t need to climb the stairs, you only need to make one small step and the machine will carry you to the end.
Charles Darwin was educated in theology, and qualified to be a minister in the Church of England. Two centuries ago, when he developed his theory, religious leaders, theologians, commonly used this kind of logic to persuade new converts. If you agreed with their first idea, the next idea made sense; and the next, and the next. If you want to understand the ‘sales job’ you should understand where this ‘escalator’ will take you.
It’s like buying a car from a persuasive salesman. If you kick the tires, you might sit in the driver’s seat, and you might go for a test drive. The whole point is to sell you the car.
John Calvin was a brilliant lawyer at the Sorbonne University in Paris, possibly the best university in the world at the time. He became one of the leaders of the early Protestants, and his five points of Calvinism are what we would expect from a professor of law; a logic escalator.
- Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin)
- Unconditional Election
- Limited Atonement (also known as Particular Atonement)
- Irresistible Grace
- Perseverance of the Saints (also known as Once Saved Always Saved)
If you can be persuaded to believe that humans are totally depraved, so low that they can never save themselves, the other steps make sense.
And then we have Charles Darwin, the secular theologian. If we agree that natural selection happens, in nature, Darwin’s next belief makes sense, and the next, until we must believe in a universe without God where life emerged from a chemical mixture in a pond, by chance. Darwin’s escalator directs us to become atheists.
That is why Hindu and Muslim leaders, with strong religious convictions, do not like Darwin’s Evolution. The first steps are easy, but they don’t want the final conclusion. Religious people don’t want to lose everything they have to a slick, progressive sales job. They are too clever for that.
It doesn’t help that Darwin’s ideas come from white Europeans, the former colonial powers that oppressed much. A proud Hindu, or Muslim will be deeply offended by ideas that erase everything important to them, ideas that are forced on them by white and English speaking people.
Evolution is not an option, and not something to be persuaded about. It is presented as received orthodoxy, and anyone who disagrees is a fool. We are being convinced against out will, and the reaction is building.
In the Christian Bible, the importance of persuading, and not imposing, was well known. One of the greatest persuaders among Christians, Paul, was convinced, persuaded, and not forced into a belief system by imposed logic, and he gave the same to others.
“We know what it means to fear the Lord, so we try to help people accept the truth. God knows what we really are, and I hope that in your hearts you know us too.” (2 Corinthians 5:11) In other translations “we persuade men.”
I predict a forceful push against Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, right or wrong. It is not possible to arrogantly force logic on people, just because we believe. This trend will spread.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 38 and 39)
Sources:
OpentheWord.org 