Darwin - missunderstood Christian or Nazi?

Christians have responded to the bi-centenary of Darwin's birth in different and confusing ways. The mainstream Christian view in the UK is to accept his theory of evolution, and take the view that it was God who set the laws of nature in motion. This means that God is still the creator, working through evolution and natural selection. So it is not surprising that the Church has taken part in the celebrations of Darwin's birth.

But some have tried to go further. The good old CofE has a page on its website setting out how active Darwin was in his local parish church. A nice angle, and a crafty way of trying to wrench Darwin away from his unwanted position as atheist pin-up for Dawkins and the like. But as the site itself acknowledges, Darwin struggled with his own faith.

Some have argued that Darwin recanted his theories on his death bed and professed a new faith. However, the evidence for this is pretty shaky, and even if he did convert on his death bed, this does nothing to dent his theories or the weight of scientific evidence that followed from others who built on Darwin's work, so Mouse thinks this argument is a non-starter.

Some wings of the church have never accepted his theories, however. Tony Campolo, the well known American pastor, writer and speaker and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University, wrote a piece yesterday in Christian Today entitled, "What's wrong with Darwinism". In this he writes, "In case you think that Darwin sounds like a Nazi, you are not far from the truth." He claims that Darwin advocated ethnic cleansing on a global scale to remove the world of inferior races.

Campolo uses the claim that Darwin was a racist to argue that his theory of evolution should not be taught in schools and that 'intelligent design' should be taught. Intelligent design is often misunderstood, but it basically argues that the genetic variations that Darwin observed in evolution were not random, but were designed by God.

Now regardless of the rights or wrongs of this, it seems to Mouse that the rejection of the theory of evolution is, for non-Christians, the mark of a nutter. Refusing to believe a mainstream theory, accepted by the scientific community demonstrates the reason why Christians' views on other things should not be trusted. Arguing that Darwin was a Nazi or that he recanted on his death bed will simply be seen as a low blow which does not address the central point over the truth (or otherwise) of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Christians should be very careful in rallying against Darwin, who is regarded as a hero by the scientific community and remembered fondly by society at large.

The good old CofE is right, however, to try to take the sting out atheist claims that Darwin has killed off Christianity and defeated the claims of the Bible. Pointing out that Darwin struggled with his faith but did not reject it outright is an important fact in this muddy debate. But the church must be careful not to be seen as trying to adopt Darwin as someone who was a Christian after all, and was just misunderstood.