Churches to mark Darwin's birthday (Tomorrow is 'Darwin Day'!)

Chicago Tribune ^ | 11 Feb 2006

[gobucks]

NEW YORK -- Nearly 450 Christian churches around the country plan to celebrate the 197th birthday of Charles Darwin on Sunday with programs and sermons intended to emphasize that his theory of biological evolution is compatible with faith and that Christians have no need to choose between religion and science. "It's to demonstrate, by Christian leaders and members of the clergy, that you don't have to make that choice. You can have both," said Michael Zimmerman, dean of College of Letters and Sciences at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, who organized the event.

(snip) "Evolution Sunday" has drawn participation from a variety of denominational and non-denominational churches, including Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Congregationalist, United Church of Christ, Baptist and a host of community churches, including at least 16 congregations in Illinois.

The event grew out of Zimmerman's The Clergy Letter Project, another effort to dispel the perception among many Christians that faith and evolution are mutually exclusive.

..the project has drawn 10,000 Christian clerics to sign a letter that concludes, "We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth."

Zimmerman said the letter project and the Sunday event were designed to educate Americans about two things. "The first part was to demonstrate to the American public that the shrill fundamentalist voices that were demanding that people had to choose between religion and science were simply wrong," he said.

"The second part was to demonstrate that those fundamentalist leaders that keep standing up and shouting that you can't accept modern science were not speaking for the majority of Christian leaders in this country."

[gobucks]

Zimmerman's Clergy Letter Project: funny, but they didn't excerpt the one part I found really interesting ... the 'truth' claim. Well, here is his entire letter:

Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. Many of the beloved stories found in the Bible--the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark--convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation. Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as "one theory among others" is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God's good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God's loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

Well now, quite a letter for 10,000 Christian clergy to sign. Quite a feat Mr. Zimmerman.

[gobucks]

...and this was a related thread a couple of weeks ago:

Evolution Sunday(liberal churches attack fundamentalism).

[southernnorthcarolina]

[mtbopfuyn]

What idiot will receive a Darwin Award tomorrow?

[gobucks]

.

[bikepacker67]

I've never found a disconnect between faith and evolution.

God is the ultimate scientist.

[goodnesswins]

"Zimmerman said the letter project and the Sunday event were designed to educate Americans about two things. "The first part was to demonstrate to the American public that the shrill fundamentalist voices that were demanding that people had to choose between religion and science were simply wrong," he said

What a boob.....I don't think anyone is "demanding that people had to choose between religion and science"....they are demanding a PLACE at the TABLE (in school) FOR RELIGION. SHEESH. (see my tagline)

[Jo Nuvark]

Isa 48:3 ... I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of My mouth, and I shewed them; I did [them] SUDDENLY, and they came to pass.

Don't care what 10,000 preachers say tomorrow, that's His story and I'm stickin' to it.

[indcons]

Ping?

[RedMonqey]

"Churches to mark Darwin's birthday."

(In Churchlady's voice):

Well, isn't that Special!!

[gobucks]

fwiw, the Darwin Day craze was started in 1994 by, ahem, a San Francisco Area resident, a Mr. Stephens, who started the whole thing. Just what is it about living in an earthquake zone that starts this stuff?

Oh, this is the beginning of his Mission Statement:

"Mission Statement

The dual mission of Darwin Day Celebration is to promote public education about science and in addition to encourage the celebration of Science and Humanity throughout the global community including the general public, private and public institutions, science professionals, science educators at all levels, libraries, museums, the print and electronic media, and science enthusiasts everywhere.

Science is our most reliable knowledge system. It has been, and continues to be, acquired solely through the application of human curiosity and ingenuity and, most importantly, it has provided enormous benefit to the health, prosperity and intellectual satisfaction for our human existence.

These are worthy achievements for all people to celebrate!

Well, interesting Mr. Stephens, interesting. Soon enough, we'll learn that Darwin was born in a manger as well I'm sure...

[Coyoteman]

they are demanding a PLACE at the TABLE (in school) FOR RELIGION

Which one? According to this website there are about 4,200 "religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc."

Did you have a particular one in mind (yours, perhaps)?

[YOUGOTIT]

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=12102024_1

Excellent article on this subject.

[PatrickHenry]

Nah. It's a creationist's thread. Let'em have their fun. Junior, archive?

[Creationist]

As the great deceiver Satan has always done use a little truth and a lot of lie to get the sheep to follow.

Many will continue to follow these lost leaders down the wrong path.

Matthew 7:13-18
13. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
15. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17. Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

[fzx12345]

Darwin sleeps with the fishes.

[goodnesswins]

how about we get rid of ALL of them, including DARWINISM? HHMMMMMMMMMMM.....in other words, there are many similarities between religions of the West, and YOU know that....if you want to study the Occult, you can do that on your own time. Otherwise, go back to the beginning of this country, and you'll find that public education was based on religious study.....

[LiteKeeper]

Considering that there over 300,000 Protestant churches in the United States, and that there is, on average, one "clergyperson" per church (probably higher than that actually), 10,000 clergy, from a little over 400 churches, is really a very small percentage. Not saying much, if you were to ask me

Litekeeper
Chaplain, US Army, retired

[Verginius Rufus]

Darwin Day -- a day to visit Darwin. Must be pretty expensive from most places given its remote location.

It would make more sense to celebrate Thomas Alva Edison's birthday (Feb. 11) since Edison's contributions to the modern world are of a more practical character than Darwin's.

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day (same year).

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

In other words, theories of man trump revelations of God. That's not my brand of Christianity. If you will notice, the list of signers includes mostly liberal denominations who don't believe much if not most of what the Bible says anyway. So why would they believe Genesis?

To each their own, but this carries as much weight as the same group of "Christian" liberals signing a petition in support of abortion or gay marriage (which most of the above would also sign).