Beginnings: Evolution Mimics Genesis 1
Charles Robert Darwin published his book, On The Origin of the Species in 1859. It would prove to be a controversial work, but within 20 years this new Theory of Evolution was widely accepted amongst academia.
Over the years, it has been broadly welcomed, especially as it fits within the scientific paradigm.
However, one nagging thought I have over this theory is how similar it is to the Biblical Creation story.
When we look at other ancient creation stories, they appear markedly different to the generally understood Theory of Evolution. Even within the non-Biblical religious traditions we have today, their creation narratives are also very different.
Darwin was a Christian
Charles Darwin was a committed Christian when he first joined the ship, the HMS Beagle. By the end of the journey, his discoveries caused him to rethink his beliefs.
I wonder if he was part of a different religious tradition, whether he would have taken what he saw and developed a different theory.
How much was he affected by his deeply Christian upbringing and how much did it influence his ideas?
If Charles was a Hindu, the theory may have been significantly different to the one we have today.
Evolution is a Creation Narrative
In my last post, I mentioned how that secular culture uses the Theory of Evolution as a creation narrative.
Our culture engages with it as a creation story, but covered in a veneer of science. We rely on various selected elements of the scientific disciplines (physics, geology, biology, etc) to build up this narrative.
Because our culture only relies on these material sciences, it can’t describe the origin of the metaphysical and how the physical interacts with the spiritual/mental.
So as a creation story, it only tells half of what makes up the human experience.
Biblical Creation vs Evolution Creation
I prefer the Biblical narrative which describes the creation of the whole of reality not just the physical space.
I can see God using the evolution mechanism to regulate the physical world, but it is not good enough to describe reality as I experience it.
The Evolution Creation story still leaves many important questions unanswered, like why am I here? What makes me a success? And Who do I credit for this beautiful world?