The March 2010 edition of our Parish Magazine is now available. This month's Vicar's Letter focuses on Charles Darwin:
The journey of the young Charles Darwin aboard the Beagle during the years 1831-36, is one of the best known and most neatly mythologised episodes in the history of science. During this voyage of the Beagle, he reflected upon the various cultures, peoples, politics that he encountered as well as science. As a seasoned naturalist and weary of travel he sailed home a changed man.
As a young intellectual he had a yearning to engage in profitable discussion and debate. To seek to understand mankind and the world in which he lived. He had grown up as a scholar and an Anglican, and earlier had considered taking orders. However, although he believed in God, he was unable to accept the opening chapters of the biblical narrative as being true. For him there was an impenetrable gulf. He truly believed in free speech and sought to encourage Christians to think through their faith in an intelligent way, rather than merely accept what the ‘bible’ stated. Much of those early chapters of Genesis, seen as ‘mythological’ seek to describe the incomprehensible. Indeed within most civilizations there is a form of Creation narrative.
Darwin saw his quest not to discredit Christians but to encourage them to think through their faith in order to give an intelligent answer to those who question. Evolution and Creation are not different ways of interpreting the phenomena of ‘beginnings’, rather two aspects of a process of creating life. Whilst our ancestors were primitive wanderers, humanity was created as a different species from the animal kingdom.
I have no problem with seeing Darwin’s theory fitting into the creation narrative as recorded in scripture. And I do not believe that Darwin intended his thoughts to encourage atheism, rather to be a catalyst for discussion and to rejoice in the rich diversity of our life.
And in the end we believe in a God who cares and sustains life in all its richness.
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Welcome to St Stephen's Church, Hounslow. We are part of the Church of England and are an Inclusive Congregation worshipping in a traditional form using Common Worship. We hope to use this blog to publicise our services and events and to show that the church is thriving in Hounslow.
